


A Streak of Luck

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Adventurer!Belle, Curse Breaking, Dark Castle, F/M, Rumbelle - Freeform, enchanted forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-06-21 04:51:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15549996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Lady Belle of the Marchlands sets out to break the curse that has doomed all the women of her family line for centuries, seeking out the legendary sorcerer Rumpelstiltskin to aid her in her quest. Even if she finds him, will he be able to help her break her curse?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **CW for this chapter:** Death in childbirth.

To say that the entirety of the Marchlands was on tenterhooks when Lady Colette was revealed to be expecting the heir to the duchy would have been an understatement. The lineage of the Marchlands nobility had always been an area of great interest for everyone who dwelt within its borders.

Every single person, without fail, including Lord Maurice and Lady Colette, were praying that the unbroken line of male heirs that had continued throughout the past three hundred years would remain constant. There had not been a girl born into the Marchlands duchy in all this time, and the land was incredibly pleased with that.

Still, as the time for Colette’s confinement drew closer and closer, Maurice could not help but worry. What if this child was the one to break that line? What would happen to the Marchlands then?

There was nothing to say that a woman could not inherit the duchy. In fact, the Marchlands had been one of the very first lands within the kingdom to do away with the archaic rules that only men could hold titles in their own right and abolish male primogeniture.

That, however, was before the curse.

Sitting in his study in the top of the castle that had been his family’s home for over a thousand years, Maurice looked over at the carving that was set into the stone above the window. Many of his forefathers had tried to remove the stone or somehow chip away at the writing that was indelibly marked upon it, but their efforts had all been to no avail. The curse that his family suffered under was set in stone and it was here to stay until someday, someone found the means to break it.

For the past three hundred years, the family had remained untouched and untroubled by this curse. If his and Colette’s child was a girl, however, then he knew that the curse would come into full effect, and quickly. It had been waiting and biding its time for so long, cheated of a victim by the fact that his bloodline had produced only boys, immune to its effects. Maurice did not know magic, but he knew how unpredictable and fickle it could be, and just how vindictive.

When the time finally came for Colette to be delivered, Maurice knew. Everything looked bleak from the outset. The midwives and physicians who had been brought to the castle from all across the lands were worried, he could see that much as he paced up and down outside Colette’s room, listening to her screams of agony, helpless to do anything except wait. People scurried in and out with towels and basins of water and potions upon potions, all of them with grim faces, refusing to give him any news of what was happening with in. It only served to give further light to his suspicions.

When everything went very quiet, he knew that it was all over, and he sat down heavily in the chair outside the door that had been placed there for him several hours ago. It was a long time before the physician came out of the room, but Maurice had already heard the whispers within.

“My lord, I am very sorry. We could not save your wife.”

Maurice nodded, he had already surmised as much.

“The child?” he asked, choked.

“A healthy baby girl,” the physician said. “Although I must warn you…”

“She already bears the mark of the curse,” Maurice finished for him.  “I know.”

The midwife brought the baby out to him, swaddled in blankets, but they couldn’t hide the white lock on her brow in amongst the wisps of dark, downy hair. Maurice touched the little white patch; he could already feel the magic humming through it. The curse that had lain dormant for so long was at work once more.

The first girl had been born into the Marchlands noble lineage for over three hundred centuries, and there would not be another heir, not now that he had lost his beloved Colette. All hopes of breaking the curse now lay in his daughter’s tiny, helpless hands.

X

_Twenty years later_

“Belle, this is madness. You’re going to get yourself killed, I know it.”

Belle turned around from where she was securing Philippe’s saddle and bridle and ran a hand through her hair in frustration, feeling the warmth of the magic that flowed through the white streak that she’d had since she was a baby.

“At the rate I’m going, I’m going to get myself killed simply by existing sooner rather than later,” she said. “I’m not asking you to come with me, Will. In fact I remember expressly telling you not to come with me and telling you to make sure that no-one else followed me either. This is something that I have to do, and it’s something that I have to do alone. If I’m going to break the curse, then this is what I have to do.”

The stable boy sighed. “You don’t have to. You know that you don’t have to do this to break your curse. All you have to do is survive, and going off on madcap adventures to find mythical sorcerers that no-one even knows if they really exist or not is really not the way to survive. You’re just asking for trouble!”

“My very existence is asking for trouble,” Belle snapped. “I’m amazed that I made it this far with all the near misses that I’ve had. I think that despite the curse, there’s some kind of guardian angel looking out for me up there. They want me to break this curse and they’re making sure that I have the opportunity to do it.”

Will didn’t look at all convinced.

“Personally I just think you’ve got good luck,” he muttered.

Belle raised an eyebrow. “The entire point of the curse is that I have bad luck,” she pointed out. “Every girl born into the noble house of the Marchlands is cursed to lead a miserable and incredibly  _short_  life filled with bad luck, unless she can find a way to break the curse. If my life is destined to be both miserable and short then I’d rather spend it trying to break the curse, if I can.”

Will had already given up trying to persuade her away from her course, Belle could tell that.

“Will you at least tell your father where you’re going?” he pleaded.

“No, because his reaction will be the same as yours, only he’ll send out a mounted guard to come and bring me back.” Belle left Philippe and came over to Will, giving him a hug. “If my life is to be cursed either way, then I’m in just as much danger here in the castle as I am out there, taking my chances in the wider world. At least this way, if I do die, then I know that I spent my days doing something useful and trying to break my family’s curse.”

Will nodded gloomily. “I’ll miss you, you know.”

“I know. I’ll miss you too, Will. So much.”

Will had been her only friend in the castle for as long as she could remember. Oh, she got on well enough with her father, of course, but there was a part of him that was always distant and closed off from her, a part that had died alongside her mother when she had been born. The rest of the castle’s staff and her father’s advisers had always treated her with deference and kid gloves, but they had never really made the effort to get close to her. She had never made a friend amongst them. She was cursed after all, and destined for misery. No-one wanted that for their own children and their own lives. No-one except Will, who was an orphan himself and was quite happy to have some company in his misery. It was Will’s friendship that had prevented Belle’s childhood from being quite as miserable as her curse had perhaps hoped that it would be.

“I’d best be getting on,” she said. “I’m going to leave a note for Papa. That will explain everything to him, even if it doesn’t tell him exactly where I’ve gone.”

“Belle, you don’t even know that this man you seek exists. All you know of him is from old wives’ tales and rumours.”

“Well, if I don’t find him then I’ll come straight home and we can think up another plan,” Belle said brightly. “I’m not giving up before I’ve even begun just because it might be difficult. I might as well just lie down now and wait for the curse to claim me.”

“Belle, don’t be dramatic.”

“I’m not being dramatic. I’m trying to be positive. For my entire life, I’ve constantly been told that there’s no point in me doing anything because of this stupid curse that’s been haunting us for hundreds of years and that no-one currently living had anything to do with. Don’t you think it’s time that we stopped being at the mercy of something that happened hundreds of years ago?”

“Well, I suppose that when you put it like that, it does make sense.”

Belle smiled. “I knew that I could persuade you to see my way of thinking. Now, I just need to go and leave the letter for Papa. I won’t be too long.”

She left Will with Philippe in the stables and made her way back up through the castle. It was the middle of the night, and the sky was overcast, no moon to light her way. She knew that taking off in such conditions was a risky idea, but there was always so much risk in whatever she did that she didn’t think waiting for clement weather would make the slightest bit of difference to her.

The rest of the castle was fast asleep, and her father’s study door was unlocked and open, inviting her in. She stepped inside, laying the note that she had written earlier in the day down on his desk where he would see it the next morning, hopefully before she was discovered to be missing.

_Dearest Papa,_ she had written.  _By the time you read this, I will be far away, on a journey to change my destiny. All my life I have been told that I am cursed and that I am doomed to a life of misery, so I have taken it upon myself to try and break this curse. To that end, I have gone to seek out the most powerful sorcerer in all the realms. I know that Rumpelstiltskin is a legend, a tale of warning to desperate souls, but with a curse so old and complex as ours, I believe that he has the best chance of being able to break it._

_I will send word as soon as I can, and if my journey proves fruitless then I will of course return, but I will not give up this quest. No matter what, I cannot be protected from this curse, it claimed me from the moment I was born and keeping me shut away in the castle will not change this destiny, but perhaps I can change it myself._

_With all my love,_

_Belle_

She held up her candle and looked at the inscription in the wall that had been set there so many centuries ago, the identity of the caster long since lost to the annals of time.

_For as long as my curse endures, all ladies born to the noble house of the Marchlands who bear the maudlin streak will be doomed to a life of strife and suffering as I was. Should a lady survive till her crown is as white as her streak, the curse will be lifted and the lineage restored._

_Break the curse and the streak will be broken._

Belle touched her fingertips to her own maudlin streak, pure white that no stain or dye had even been able to darken. Whoever had cast this curse had invoked a terrible and powerful magic for it to have endured for so long and still be so powerful after so much time.

She knew that she could not have been the first to try and break the curse, as so many people within the household had told her that it had long since been thought to be impossible. None of the books that she had read had ever mentioned the curse or anything remotely like it, and had given no hints as to what might possibly be able to break it. That was why Belle was seeking out a legend.

Rumpelstiltskin, the greatest sorcerer in all the realms, called upon by desperate souls. Although Belle would never admit it, she was a desperate soul herself. She was determined that she was not going to be cowed by this curse. She was even more determined that when she did eventually marry and have children of her own, she would not pass on this curse to any daughters that she might have. 

Of course, suitors for a cursed woman were few and far between, and Lord Maurice had privately given up all hope of the line of Marchlands nobility ever continuing, but Belle still believed. Everyone else in her family may have given up or become complacent from the three hundred years of first-born sons securing the bloodline, but Belle wasn’t.

Her conviction was unwavering as she made her way back through the castle and out to the stables where Will was still waiting with Philippe. She was doing this for herself, certainly, who wanted to live with a curse when they had the chance to break it? But more than anything, she was doing this to secure the future of her family and the peace and prosperity of the Marchlands that had always been her family’s home. If the noble family could not continue, then the place would fall into ruin and disrepair, carved up by the greedy landowners on either side of them. Belle would not let that happen, and if undertaking this dangerous  journey was the only way to help herself and her home, then that was what she would do.

“You’re definitely going then,” Will said as she came back into the stables.

“Of course, Will. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll write to you as soon as I can and let you know how I’m getting on once I find him.”

“I’m not going to say that he doesn’t exist, because you’ll only correct me.” Despite the melancholy air of their parting, Will was still smiling at Belle’s stubbornness, and she pulled him into a tight hug.

“Take care of yourself, Will, and please look out for my father for me.”

“I always have, Belle. And you make sure that you take care of yourself, too.”

“I will. I’ll see you soon, and when you next see me again, I’ll have broken this curse.”

“Your optimism is both inspiring and exasperating. Just… Don’t stay away too long, Belle. It’ll be lonely without you.”

It would be lonely on the road without her only friend, too, but Belle had to do this. She couldn’t sit around and wait for her hair to turn white, knowing that time was ticking away from her.

She finally released Will with a little reluctance and he gave her a leg-up onto Philippe’s back. She tightened her grip on the reins and checked that her packs were fastened into his saddlebags securely.

“Good luck, Belle,” Will called as she set off out of the stables.

Belle just waved to him in return. Luck was one thing that had never been on her side, and one thing that she was certain to need an awful lot of.

A few rays of pale silver moonlight were just beginning to push weakly through the cloud cover as she trotted down the lanes away from the castle.

Now all she had to do was to find Rumpelstiltskin.


	2. Chapter 2

Once Belle had managed to make it past the borders of the Marchlands without encountering anything that could possibly put a very swift end to her journey, she began to allow her cautious optimism to come to the fore once more.

Although she knew that the curse would plague her for as long as she lived and would follow her wherever she went, she liked to think that now she was away from the castle where it had been set in stone and out of the land that had been cursed, it might be somewhat appeased and would let her get on with her quest in peace.

Now all she had to do was to find Rumpelstiltskin. Belle had read so many tales about him when she had been younger; he was a legend told to all the children of the Marchlands, a warning about wanting something too desperately. He was only a fairy story, her father had told her after she’d heard a particularly scary tale about him turning people he didn’t like into snails and squashing them underfoot. He wasn’t real.

But Belle knew that all legends had to have their roots in reality somewhere. Rumpelstiltskin was well-known in all the folklore to be immortal as the result of a curse, the darkest curse that had ever graced the earth. (Privately, Belle wondered what it would take to swap her own curse for one that would grant immortality instead of the early death that she was doomed too. Surely Rumpelstiltskin’s curse couldn’t be that bad.)

This was going to be the first real test of her resolve. Trotting along the road, she determined to stop at the first inn that she found and ask for directions, although she could already foresee a few problems with that.

For a start, asking for directions to Rumpelstiltskin was likely to just get her blank looks, or a few sniggers from those in the Frontlands who were slightly more well-informed.

The second and somewhat more major difficulty was that even if she did find someone who believed in Rumpelstiltskin and accepted that he could be found, no-one knew exactly where his castle was supposed to be located. It was only after several months of careful research that Belle herself had found any inkling as to its whereabouts, and she doubted that anyone she might ask casually about it would have that depth of knowledge. Still, local expertise weren’t to be sniffed at, and it could be that what was hard to find in the Marchlands was common knowledge here across the border.

Slowing Philippe to a walk as she came off the main road that led through the Marchlands and into the Frontlands, Belle pulled out her map to check that she was still going in the right direction. It would be just her luck if she turned out to have been going miles the wrong way because her map was upside down.

No, for the moment everything seemed to be going to plan. She was still on the right track, and the Dark Castle that was Rumpelstiltskin’s supposed home should be around here in the Frontlands somewhere.

She stowed the map back in her saddlebag and pulled out the small notebook that she had been using to gather together all the information that she would need for her trip. She had pulled the notes from several different sources within her father’s library, from books of local fairy tales and folklore to the dry and boring histories of the land. Since no-one in her family had seen fit to write down any specifics about the magics that had cursed them in the first place, it had taken some finding to work out anything about the man who could hopefully break her malediction.

The scant resources that she could find always pointed to the Frontlands as the place where Rumpelstiltskin had been spotted most often, although that description did make him sound rather like a strange exotic bird. Belle put it to the back of her mind and pressed on. She was going to find this man. Everything that she had read pointed to his being a person of flesh and blood, not just a fairy story. Someone who had that much of a magical reputation had to get it from somewhere, and it would be from the people that he had dealt with himself, passing along the cautionary tales, and less frequently, the tales of the help he had given them.

The inn that she had been aiming for came into view, and Belle slipped off Philippe’s back, leading him the last few yards towards the stables. An ostler came out to take care of him, but Belle preferred to see to him herself. She knew that she couldn’t be too careful when it came to this trip. Will had warned her about taking unnecessary risks whilst she was out here, and she didn’t want to tempt fate into doing something irrevocable before she reached her destination.

Having got Philippe settled into a stall and well supplied with oats and water, Belle stepped outside into the early evening sun. It had been a long day’s journey since she had left her father’s castle, and now, standing here miles from her home, she felt very alone.

She pulled up her hood to hide her white streak; a distinguishing feature like that would get her noticed and even though she wasn’t anticipating much trouble, she had to be prepared, especially if her father had decided to send a retinue after her to bring her back to the safety of the Marchlands fortress.

As she turned towards the main entrance of the tavern, something caught her eye in the shadows behind the stables, another hooded figure looking furtive like she was. Belle shivered, hoping for the best and knowing that she ought to be safe once she was inside the tavern. She really didn’t want to be struck down by bandits before her first day of travelling was over. Philippe was a good horse, but she was travelling for a journey and had not brought any of her noblewoman’s finery with her; surely she wasn’t a good target for thieves.

She walked briskly into the tavern with her packs and secured a room for the night before making her way over to a table in the corner where she would hopefully remain undisturbed whilst she studied her maps.

The Frontlands covered a large area and there were many mountains within it that could have been Rumpelstiltskin’s home. It was one of the poorer parts of the country, having never really recovered from the frequent ogre wars that had ravaged the lands for many years. It was perfectly possible that Belle could spend weeks roaming around the foothills and not really getting anywhere, so she was going to have to narrow down her searching area, and to do that, she would need advice from a local.

The innkeeper brought over a tankard for her, pausing a moment to look over her shoulder at the maps and the lines that Belle had drawn on them pre-emptively.

“Looking for some place in particular?” he asked. “There’s no gold in the mountains, believe me, we’ve almost pulled them down searching for it.”

“A castle,” Belle said nonchalantly, deciding that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to divulge too much information at this early stage.

The innkeeper’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t looking for the Dark Castle, are you?”

Belle sighed inwardly. Just her luck. Well, since he had already guessed her intentions, there wasn’t really a lot of point in hiding it.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I am.”

The innkeeper now just looked pained. “You know, if you’re that desperate to find Rumpelstiltskin, they say that if you call his name three times it’ll summon him to your side.”

Belle nodded. She had read such tales herself, but she wasn’t going to be doing any summoning just yet. She might be a soul desperate enough to seek him out, but she wasn’t desperate enough not to meet him on her own terms yet. The idea of meeting him out of the blue like that wasn’t one that she wanted to dwell on, and she hoped that if she could go to him and maybe catch him unawares, then the curse wouldn’t unexpectedly pull a fast one on her. She knew that if she were to try summoning the man now, in the tavern, precisely nothing would happen and she would be a laughing stock.

“I’d prefer to find him, rather than have him find me,” she said to the innkeeper. “I don’t suppose that you would have any idea as to where I might be able to find the Dark Castle?”

The man shook his head. “It’s just an idle fancy as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “But if you take my advice, you’ll turn straight round and go back to where you came from. Nothing’s worth getting involved in a deal with him, no matter how tempting it might be at the time.”

Belle raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said that it was all just an idle fancy?”

“Yes, well, all idle fancies have to come from somewhere,” he muttered, leaving her alone and going back to the bar. He kept glancing over at her every few moments, looking at her out of the corner of his eye as if he was worried by precisely what she might be seeking out Rumpelstiltskin’s assistance for.

Belle sighed and returned to her maps. It was clear that she wasn’t going to get much out of the people in the tavern, so she was going to have to go about this in a smarter way. Searching the entirety of the mountains might be beyond her, but she’d read about weather patterns and she could predict whereabouts along the range the worst storms would hit, and know to avoid those areas. It was unlikely that Rumpelstiltskin would make his home somewhere completely inhospitable, but at the same time, he was purportedly the greatest magician in all the realms and therefore he could probably perform some kind of magic that would keep his castle protected from the elements no matter what nature might throw at him.

Actually, perhaps that was more likely, since he was so reclusive. If he wanted people to stop bothering him, then living in a place that no-one could physically get to was a good way to go about it. All the same, Belle was nothing if not determined, and she returned to her notebooks.

Most of the tomes that she had read in her search for information about the man had agreed that he was a trickster, and that he couldn’t resist making a deal if one was open to him. Surely if he enjoyed it that much, then he wouldn’t make it too difficult for the desperate souls to find him and present their deals in their hour of need. She struck off the worst weather areas of the map and began to plot a route to the first set of foothills to search. There was another tavern in the area where she could rest and if she set off first thing in the morning, then she should be able to make good time.

It was at that moment that a shadow fell across Belle’s table, and she glanced up, thinking that it was the innkeeper come back to either warn her against her quest to find Rumpelstiltskin or tell her that if she was going to try summoning him, then she couldn’t stay under his roof.

It wasn’t the innkeeper. It was the hooded man from outside the stables, and Belle felt the same little shiver of fear that she had felt outside.

He sat down opposite her without asking leave, and he did not remove his hood. 

“I can guide you to the Dark Castle,” he began.

Belle leaned back, trying to get a measure of the man. She couldn’t see his face from any angle that she tried, but from what she could glimpse, the flickering light from the fire in the tavern seemed to play oddly off his skin. She sighed inwardly. It was just her luck that the only person in the place who was willing to guide her was also the person whom she thought was most likely to kill her in her sleep.

“And why should I trust you?” Belle asked. She folded her arms, trying to make herself look as intimidating as possible. From the glances that the innkeeper kept giving her, she didn’t think that she was succeeding, but it made her feel better about the whole situation.

Unperturbed, the hooded figure leaned in over the table.

“Because the others in this tavern might find it very interesting to know that Lady Belle of the Marchlands, currently on the run from her father, is sitting at this table plotting a route to the most feared magician in the realms,” he hissed.

“How…” Belle began, but the man waved away her words with one gloved hand. 

“You’ll never reach the castle by taking that way,” he said, almost conversationally, as he grabbed the quill from her scratched out the lines that she had been tracing. “There are much easier ways to get to the mountains, but you need to know the way.”

“And I suppose that you do?”

“Of course I do. Do you think I would be offering my services as a guide if I didn’t?”

He sounded so affronted at the charge, and the fact that the he genuinely hadn’t realised just how creepy his proposition sounded made Belle snort with cynical laughter.

“You might be wanted to lure me into land I’m unfamiliar with, lull me into a false sense of security and then kill me and steal all my valuables, since you know I’m a noblewoman travelling alone and no-one knows where I am.”

“Hmm.” The man sat back. “Well, when you put it like that, I can see your hesitation.”

There was something in his voice that sounded strange, like it wasn’t entirely human. A high, fluting tone that seemed to lend itself to magic and mystery. Whoever this man was, he certainly wasn’t the average roving rogue out to make a quick bit of silver from holding up travellers. Belle felt a tingle at her scalp, and she slipped a hand into her own hood to feel the streak of white in her hair. It was warm to the touch as it always was, the magic still pulsing through it steadily, but there was something else in it tonight, like an jolt of lightning. It was almost as if it recognised the hooded figure.

“I think that your curse trusts me, even if you don’t,” the man observed. Although she couldn’t see his eyes, she knew that he was watching her intently from under the dark fabric that obscured his face.

The cogs began to turn in Belle’s mind. He knew an awful lot about her without having spoken to her, and the aura of magic was hanging heavily in the air around him. If he did know the way to the Dark Castle, then Belle thought she might know why.

“All right,” she said, extending a hand across the table for him to shake. “If you can guide me to the Dark Castle, then I’ll be willing to follow you.”

The man shook her hand, giving a high-pitched giggle. “That was a quick change of heart. What happened to your fears of being murdered in your bed and all your gold pillaged and your horse stolen?”

Belle just gave a satisfied little smirk in return.

“Let’s just say that I’ve got a hunch.”


	3. Chapter 3

Belle agreed with the hooded man that she would meet him outside the tavern the next morning at daybreak, to give her and Philippe time to rest and recover after their long day’s journey out of the Marchlands.

“So, do you have a name?” she asked the man as he got up to leave. “You already know mine, of course. What should I call you?”

The question seemed to have wrong-footed him slightly and he hovered half-in and half-out of the chair for a minute whilst he gave the matter some serious thought.

“You can call me… Bill,” he said eventually.

Belle gave a snort of laughter which she quickly hid behind her hand.

“Very well,  _Bill_ ,” she said, emphasising the obviously fake name. “I shall see you tomorrow morning.”

‘Bill’ nodded and left the tavern, passing through the other gathered patrons like a shadow. Belle wondered if any of them other than herself had actually been able to see him. The magic radiated from him, exuding an air of power and danger, but she didn’t feel that she was in all that much danger herself. The magic of the curse in her own veins had recognised him, and in a way that made her feel more confident.

Of course, given that the curse had been specifically designed to make her miserable, Belle wasn’t entirely sure that she trusted its judgement when it came to working out people’s intentions towards her. When she went up to her room in the tavern, she wasted no time in pushing the heavy dresser across the room to barricade the door against potential intruders, and she lay for a long time watching the window, in case ‘Bill’ turned out not to be the person she thought he was and he did decide to murder her in her bed after all.

When dawn broke with no ill effects, Belle chanced to think that perhaps everything was going to be all right after all. Philippe was ready and raring to go again, unamused at being cooped up in unfamiliar stables all night however much he might have appreciated the oats at the time. Belle was just fastening the saddlebags over his back once more when she caught sight of a familiar hooded figure skulking around the stables. The other ostlers didn’t seem to be paying him any mind whatsoever, and she again wondered if she was the only person who could see him.

They’d always said that Rumpelstiltskin could pick up on the wishes of the most desperate and swoop in to their aid whenever he was needed, and she wondered if that was what had happened here. Although she had not summoned him, he had recognised her cry for help with this curse and come to investigate.

Still, if he didn’t want to be recognised for who he was, then Belle would play along for a while, content to just wonder what on earth he was doing.

He slipped past the stables and the ostlers and came up beside Belle, leading a horse of his own. She couldn’t tell whether he’d stolen it from the stables or whether it really was his own, and she decided that it would probably be better not to ask.

She mounted Philippe and turned to face her guide for the second part of the journey.

“Shall we go then, Bill?” she asked sweetly. “Lead the way.”

Still not removing his hood, ‘Bill’ gave a curt nod and turned his horse away, setting off down the road away from the inn and away from the Marchlands, heading further into what had always been known as prime ogre territory. Belle shivered, drawing her heavy woollen cloak a little tighter around herself. There had not been any ogres in these parts for centuries, ever since, according to legend, Rumpelstiltskin ended the wars with his magic. All the same, that didn’t mean that they had been wiped out completely and there were always rumours of the odd sighting here or there in the mountains.

Which were exactly where she was headed towards. Belle began to think that maybe she’d made a miscalculation, because if anyone was going to have the bad luck to meet an ogre whilst travelling, it was probably her.

Once they were far enough away from the tavern not to attract suspicion and they had not yet met anyone else travelling on the roads so early, Belle pushed her hood back to feel the sunshine on her face. Her white streak was braided in tightly with the rest of her hair, as hidden as it could be in plain sight, and with any luck, anyone who saw her in passing whilst she was riding along the road would just assume that she was older than she looked, and that the streak was the natural result of aging.

“It’s a lovely morning,” she observed to her companion. “Aren’t you going to take your hood off, Bill? Feel the breeze in your face and the sun on your skin?”

‘Bill’ just shook his head, continuing on towards the mountain ranges in the distance at a steady pace. Belle dug her heels in to Philippe’s sides to get him to speed up, and soon she was riding alongside him.

She didn’t say anything for a while, content just to watch him and see what she could make of him. Her first impression of him at the tavern the previous evening had been that he was rather creepy, and although that feeling had not gone away entirely, she had also realised that he was desperate to try and hide his true identity, even if he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

Belle decided that the best course of action would be to try and lead into the conversation slowly and gradually so as not to startle him – he was her best guide to the Dark Castle after all – but they’d been riding side by side in silence for so long that no matter what she said now, it was going to sound awkward. She went for something that had been playing on her mind all morning.

“Could the ostlers see you this morning?” she asked. “I swear that one of them looked straight at you and saw nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Who says that strange hooded figures hanging around and acting in a thoroughly unorthodox manner is out of the ordinary in these parts?” ‘Bill’ replied.

“I think that you just answered your own question there,” Belle pointed out. “So, could they?”

Her companion sighed. “You ask a lot of strange questions.”

“I wouldn’t say that they were strange,” Belle countered. “If you’re going to be guiding me to the Dark Castle through lands I don’t know, I need to make sure that I can trust you, and that means finding out all about you. And if I’m the only person who can see you, I’d quite like to know that for the future so that it doesn’t look like I’m talking to myself all the time. Enough people already think I’m mad as it is; I don’t need everyone in the Frontlands thinking that I’m two currants short of a fruitcake as well. Besides, you haven’t actually answered the question yet.”

“No, they couldn’t see me.”

“Why were you sneaking around then?”

“Habit, I suppose. Besides, you can’t be too careful.” He paused and turned his hooded face towards her as if he were appraising her, looking for her trustworthiness. “Now I think it’s my turn to find out something about you.”

Belle shrugged her shoulders. “If you want. Considering everything that you said to me in the tavern last night though, I would have thought that you already knew everything that you needed to know about me.”

“Why are you seeking out the Dark Castle and Rumpelstiltskin?”

“I thought that you knew that one already,” Belle said. “You know that I’m cursed. I want to break that curse. If anyone’s going to help me, then the most powerful magician in all the realms should be able to.”

“What makes you so sure? And don’t say a hunch, you already had one of those last night and I know for a fact that you can’t see the future.”

“Oh, that’s a fact, is it?” Belle giggled at his indignant exclamation. “How do you know that I can’t?”

“Because I do,” he snapped. “Anyway, I’m asking the questions now.”

“That’s really not fair. I only asked one, and now you’re asking me two. I think that we should take turns.”

“We did. You asked me how I knew that you can’t tell the future.”

“Are you always this pedantic?”

“Ah ah, I’m asking the questions.”

Belle rolled her eyes but gave in with good grace. At least the bickering was better than the silence had been, and with every yard they covered, she was building up a better picture of the man she was riding beside whose name was absolutely not Bill.

“Ask away,” she said.

“Do you know who cursed you?”

Belle shook her head. “No. No-one in the family knows. Well, I guess that whoever was around when the curse was first cast knew, but it’s not information that they thought was worth sharing with the younger generations and now the knowledge has just been lost to time.”

“It’s always easier to break a curse if you know who the original caster was,” ‘Bill’ said, but he didn’t seem to be talking to Belle anymore. He was muttering to himself, and although she could not see his face, Belle thought that his posture and the tone of his voice were indicative of the fact that he was concentrating hard on whatever it was that he was thinking about.

“Why do you care so much about the mechanics of my curse?” Belle asked. “Our agreement was that you would take me to the Dark Castle and Rumpelstiltskin so that he could help me to break the curse. I never asked you to have a go at breaking it yourself, even though you’re so obviously magical.”

“Yes. Well. It’s good to take an interest in these things, you know,” he said quickly, scrambling to recover himself. “I mean, for all I know your curse makes you turn into a dragon at any random moment and I really don’t want that to happen whilst I’m guiding you through remote territories. I have to think about my own safety as much as you want to think about yours, you know.”

“I’ve never turned into a dragon before,” Belle assured him.

“That makes it sound like it’s a distinct possibility for the future,” ‘Bill’ said sagely.

“It might well be, for all I understand of the magic behind it.” Belle sighed. “I’m doomed to have a short life. All the women born into the family before me were sickly and a lot of them died in childbirth. I’ve always been healthy and I’m not planning on any children quite yet – not that being cursed attracts me many potential husbands, of course. Actually, that might be the only advantage to this curse. At least I’m not betrothed yet and haven’t been pressured to produce an heir to the duchy before I turned twenty.” She paused, ruminating on her romantic prospects and the thankful lack of them for a while, before returning to her original thread. “Anyway, since I’m not likely to die in the same way as all the other cursed women that came in the bloodline before me, it’s probably going to get me in a wholly unexpected way like some kind of horrific accident. I certainly wouldn’t put it past it to turn me into a dragon.”

‘Bill’ was silent for a while, just digesting this information.

“You seem very accepting of it all,” he mused.

“There’s not much else to do,” Belle said. “As I said to my friend Will before I left the Marchlands, there’s no point in me just sitting around all day waiting for the curse to get me. It would be a very miserable existence and if I’m doomed to have a short life then I at least want it to be an exciting one that I actually did something useful in. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for women to be heroes as it is, and there are even less if you’re cursed.”

“Well, that’s certainly true,” ‘Bill’ said. He seemed genuinely interested in hearing about the curse, but Belle didn’t think that there was anything more to tell.

“If I can break the curse and live a long and happy life, then that’s good enough for me,” she said. “And if I ever do end up having daughters, then I know that they will live long and happy lives too, and I won’t have to worry about my curse affecting them. Even if I don’t break the curse that’s on me, it would be wonderful if I could break it for future generations.”

“Lady Belle, I have come to the conclusion that you’re a very remarkable woman.”

Belle felt the colour rise in her cheeks.

“Thank you. I’m just doing what’s right.”

“Well, no-one else in your family has seen fit to do it before you, so I would say that makes you out of the ordinary.”

They lapsed into silence for a while. ‘Bill’ was clearly lost in thought, and Belle thought that there probably wouldn’t be a better time to test her theory.

“Rumpelstiltskin?” she said casually.

‘Bill’ gave a grunt of acknowledgement, and Belle raised an eyebrow.

“I thought you said your name was Bill.”

Rumpelstiltskin slowed his horse to a stop. “Ah.”

Belle couldn’t help but grin. “To be fair, you were being fairly obvious,” she said. “No-one flounders over a fake name that much and then comes out with Bill. And your attempts to be inconspicuous were actually laughable, especially as we’ve established that I was the only person who could see you in the first place. The magic rolls off you in waves.”

Rumpelstiltskin pulled his hood down, looking at her with an affronted expression.

“Do you mind?” he snapped. “I’ve agreed to help you break your curse and all you’re doing is sitting there insulting me!”

“You never agreed to break my curse,” Belle pointed out. “You just agreed to guide me to the Dark Castle, and you did so under a false identity so any agreement that we may have had is void anyway.”

Rumpelstiltskin narrowed his eyes. “You’ve a keen eye for the minutiae,” he said. 

“I knew that I was setting out in search of a master dealmaker,” Belle pointed out. “I did my research. The last thing I wanted was to be getting into a deal that would make things even worse with my curse than they already are.”

“Well, I have to hand it to you that you have gumption, Lady Belle, and I do admire that.”

“So, will you break my curse?” Belle asked.

“Curses are very tricky things, you know,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “So many different combinations, so many different effects. Sometimes it can all depend on what colour hat the person was wearing when they cast the curse in the first place.”

“You’re joking.”

“Maybe. Anyway, like I said, curse-breaking is a difficult past time. Much easier to put the curses on than it is to take them off.”

“That’s exactly why I need the help of someone with as much knowledge and experience as you,” Belle said levelly. “If you don’t think that you can do it, then I’m sure I can find another magician who would be willing to give it a shot.”

“They’d swindle you, the lot of them,” Rumpelstiltskin said sourly. “Leave you absolutely no better off than before.” He paused. “How about we make a deal. If you accompany me to the Dark Castle where all my books are, I will then make a decision as to whether I have the means to break your curse. If I do not, then I will assure your return to your home in perfect safety, no matter what this curse might try to throw in your way. If I do, then we can work out the details of that particular deal when we get there.”

Belle nodded. “That sounds fair to me. I’ll come with you, and if you can help, we make another deal. If you can’t, I go home completely unscathed.”

“Deal.”

They shook hands again, and set the horses moving again until it was time to stop and rest. Sitting under the shade of a large cedar tree, Belle wondered what the rest of the journey would have in store for her, and what Rumpelstiltskin’s decision would be once they arrived.


	4. Chapter 4

Now that they had established Rumpelstiltskin’s actual identity after the Bill farce, he was no longer taking any pains to conceal his face, and as such, Belle had the opportunity to observe him properly.

They had been riding together in silence for the most part of the afternoon, with Rumpelstiltskin lost in thought, no doubt trying to work out how to break Belle’s curse once they arrived at the Dark Castle, and whether it was even possible. Belle for her part amused herself by trying to piece together a true picture of the man riding beside her from the person she could actually see, the things she had read in her book, and all the tall tales that she had been told over the years.

That he was under some kind of curse was clear from his strange appearance. Now that the light was shining on him, Belle could see that his mottled skin had a strange little sheen to it, as if he had been covered in gold dust. Well, that would make sense if all the tales of him being able to turn straw into gold were true. Some of it must have rubbed off on him.

She wondered what kind of curse it was. Whatever it was had definitely made him immortal; if all the stories were to be believed then he had been around for several centuries. She fell to pondering, letting Philippe fall out of step with the other horse so that she could daydream in peace. Perhaps he was not the original Rumpelstiltskin of the legends, still alive today. Perhaps it was just a title, passed on to several successors of the original dealmaker.

“Rumpelstiltskin,” she said presently.

He turned to glance over his shoulder at her.

“Yes, dearie? What is it? You know, if we’re going to hold a conversation, it might be easier if you come up here again, I can’t be talking to you over my shoulder all the time. I’ll get the most terrible crick in my neck and if the wind changes then I might be stuck like that forever.”

Belle trotted up alongside him again.

“That’s much better. So, what was it that you wanted to know, my dear? I can see that you’re practically bursting at the seams with questions, no matter how proper and polite and ladylike you’re trying to be.”

He was right. There were so many things that Belle wanted to know about him, but she didn’t know if her questions would be too personal this soon into their acquaintance. She had read so much about him and she was desperate to know how much of the legend was rooted in reality, and how much had been made up by storytellers over the years. If he really was as old as people claimed, then it would be unlikely that there was anyone else alive today who could substantiate the tales.

“Why are we still riding?” she asked, picking her most innocuous question to start with.

Rumpelstiltskin raised one eyebrow.

“Because as I am sure you are aware, we are not yet at the Dark Castle.” He gestured around himself theatrically at the open expanse of grassland that they were travelling across. “I can assure you that the place itself is not in any way, shape or form invisible. We’re not going to suddenly happen across it where it wasn’t before. Therefore, we are still riding because we have not arrived at our destination.”

“I know that,” Belle said. “What I mean is, why are we still riding when you have the magic necessary to transport us there in a fingersnap.”

“Ah.” Rumpelstiltskin waggled a claw-tipped finger at her. “Now there, you see, is the problem.”

“Don’t you have that kind of power?”

“Oh, I have that kind of power, all right, dearie. I could transport us to the castle in a fingersnap. I could transport the castle over to us in a fingersnap. I could make you invisible and send you to the bottom of the ocean and back without harming a hair on your head. Raw power isn’t the problem here.”

“So why wouldn’t you transport us?” Belle asked. She was intrigued by his vehemence about the whole affair, and she wondered what his motives were in extending their journey longer than they had to. Surely it would be in everyone’s best interests for everything to be cleared up as soon as possible; the sooner that they could get started on breaking her curse, the better. Or, to put it another way, the sooner that Rumpelstiltskin could tell her that her curse was unbreakable, the sooner Belle could start coming to terms with the idea.

“All magic comes with a price,” Rumpelstiltskin explained. “It’s a basic law of nature, you see. Equal and opposite reactions and all that kind of thing. You can never get something for nothing. Every time I perform a feat of magic to assist me, then the magic requires something in return. Can you imagine what life would be like if there were no prices for the spells that we weave? Everyone would get a magical solution to their problems with no questions asked and the world would be very boring.”

He gave an explosive, high-pitched giggle, and Belle could immediately tell that there was something else behind the words than mere flippancy.

“Somehow I don’t think that boredom is the reason,” she said sagely.

Rumpelstiltskin just looked at her for a long time. His eyes were narrowed, scrutinising her thoroughly, and Belle wondered just what he was thinking. It looked like he was sizing her up again, taking some measure of her although she didn’t know what.

“You’re an interesting one, Lady Belle,” he said, not that the cryptic words really shed any light on the situation.

He didn’t speak again for a long time, and Belle assumed that the conversation was closed. Perhaps she’d touched a nerve somewhere along the line without meaning to, although she couldn’t for the life of her think what she might have said to offend him.

“It’s a question of balance,” he said suddenly. “Every spell cast takes its toll on its caster. Why do you think I look like this? My complexion wasn’t always this rosy, you know. Several lifetimes of dark magic will do that to a person.”

His dark eyes flashed dangerously, but Belle didn’t feel any fear. “If you know the legends, then presumably you know the bad ones as well as the good ones. There’s a reason why people only come to me for a deal when they’re desperate.”

“Well, I’m desperate,” Belle said. “And yes, I know all the legends. I know the prices that you extract from people who seek your help. I may be young, but I’m not naïve.”

“Well, I suppose that will remain to be seen,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “Still, it’s good to know that you’ve done your research. The price that I extract from my deals is simply the price that would otherwise be extracted from me instead. All magic comes with a price, be it the dark magic that we sorcerers have harnessed for centuries, or the mystical magic of the fae. The difference is that the fairies don’t tell you about the price in advance. They just let you pay it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, they’ll give you a solution to your problems all right, and they won’t charge you a penny for it. But somehow, in some way, that solution to your problems will inexplicably start causing more problems than it solved, and no-one ever thinks to link this mysterious coincidence back to the fairies.” He gave an emphatic sniff. “At least I’m up front with my prices. No-one can ever accuse me of not setting everything out in writing. Whether or not they read it is entirely up to them.”

His feathers were ruffled; Belle could tell.

“I apologise. I seem to have touched a sore spot.”

Rumpelstiltskin just bowed his head a little. “All magic has a price,” he repeated. “Even the magic to break your curse will have a price. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“I’m willing to pay it,” Belle said.

Rumpelstiltskin just looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you absolutely sure about that?” he asked. “You may not like the price once I’ve worked out what it’s going to be.”

“Well…” Belle thought back to the tales of her youth. “I’m not sure that being uncursed is worth a first-born, but then again, I probably won’t survive to see a first-born in the first place, or at least to live with one for very long.”

“You’re incredibly pragmatic about it,” Rumpelstiltskin observed.

“Like I said before, I’ve had to be. There’s no use in pussyfooting about the whole thing. Sometimes you have to look at things from a different point of view in order to get anywhere in the world.”

“Hmm.” He paused. “I’m glad you thought about the first-borns.”

They rode on in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. At least Belle knew now why they were still travelling on horseback even if Rumpelstiltskin had probably poofed himself to the inn to meet her as soon as he knew that she was on her way to seek him out. Magically transporting another person probably came at a much greater cost than just moving himself, and she couldn’t ask him to pay that price now just for the sake of her convenience.

“You mentioned all the legends that surround you,” Belle began again. “I was wondering about them.”

“How many are true, you mean? Oh, all of them and more, I can assure you. Especially the really bad ones.”

He grinned then, showing sharp, mossy teeth, but Belle was unperturbed.

“No, I wasn’t thinking about the truth of them. I know that all legends get embroidered over the years.”

“Most of them embroidered by my own fair hand, if I do say so myself.” He seemed extraordinarily proud of the fact.

“Well, be that as it may, I was wondering why there were so many legends in the first place since you’re still, you know. Alive. Active. Still making deals. You’ve fallen into folktale and legend but you’re as real a person as I am. How did that happen? How does a man become a myth like that within his own lifetime?”

Rumpelstiltskin didn’t answer for a long time. He was staring out into the middle distance as they rode towards the mountains, but Belle could tell that he wasn’t taking any of it in at all. His mind was miles away.

“I suppose it might have something to do with the fact that my lifetime is rather longer than everyone else’s.” He looked over at her at last, and in that moment, Belle could see the centuries etched into the lines around his eyes. Physically he didn’t look to be older than his late forties, but his eyes held many more years in their depths. “Yes, I really am as old as people say.”

“How?”

“You’re not the only one who’s cursed, dearie. Like I said, all magic comes at a price.”

They continued to ride on. Belle was lost in thought, but she didn’t dare to ask Rumpelstiltskin any more questions until later, once they had reached the castle. She felt that there was something different about him now. Despite his strange appearance, he was the closest to a normal human man that he had been throughout their short time together, and it perturbed her. The knowledge that there was a man who had once been human there underneath the veneer of magic and legend made her wonder just what had happened to turn him into the person she saw now.

There had to be a reason why he had allowed his name to become legend. There had to be a reason why so many people thought that he was just an old wives’ tale and that he didn’t really exist. He was a figure from local myth and history, someone who wasn’t entirely real despite his presence throughout their folklore.

Up until now, perhaps he hadn’t been entirely real to Belle. Now, he was definitely a man of flesh and blood like anyone else, and she was more than intrigued to find out what the real story behind him was. His origins had been lost to time; like so many figures of legend, no-one could tell precisely how he came to be. The books had spoken of a curse, vague mentions of making a deal that he hadn’t understood at the time. Belle wondered if fairies were involved somewhere along the line to give him his antipathy towards them and their magic.

Other than those few vague words, though, there had been no mentions of where he had come from or who he had been before this curse. It was as if he had always been there, a constant presence that no one questioned. She had been intrigued by him before, but now having met him and verified his reality, she was even more so.

A cold wind had started to blow in from the north, and Belle pulled her cloak in tighter around her against the chill, pulling her hood up and tucking in her chin.

“Yes, the mountains are a forbidding place at times.” Rumpelstiltskin seemed unaffected by the sudden cold, and he looked over at Belle, shivering in her saddle. “Don’t worry. The castle will be more welcoming once we get there.”

“Do you have to live in such a remote place?” Belle muttered.

“I don’t like uninvited guests any more than the next man looking for peace and a quiet life,” Rumpelstiltskin pointed out. “At least I know that anyone who comes looking for me here really means business. I find that living so remotely does help to sort the desperate from the truly desperate. Most people would think it madness to make such a journey.”

“Well, call me mad then.”

Rumpelstiltskin just chuckled and squeezed his heels in to pick up the pace against the driving winds; Belle followed suit.

“Here,” he said, snapping his fingers. An empty glass jar appeared in his hand, and he held it out to Belle, who took it gingerly.

“What is it?”

He gave her an unimpressed look. “It’s not finished yet. Stop getting ahead of yourself.”

He snapped his fingers again and a small ball of blue flame flickered into life, dancing over his palm. Carefully, he tipped it into the jar, and immediately Belle felt her chilly hands begin to warm up.

“Thank you,” she said. “What’s the price for this one, then?”

Rumpelstiltskin waved her question away. “Oh, this one’s on me. We can’t have you dying of frostbite before we even get there, can we? It would be a terrible waste of a journey and I was really looking forward to analysing your curse; it’s one of the most complex I’ve seen and I’d hate to be denied the chance to take a closer look at it.”

Belle didn’t think that he was being entirely truthful in his reasoning there, but she didn’t press him any further, simply grateful for the warmth that was now suffusing her veins from the little jar of fire.

She felt a tingling sensation at her scalp again, at the base of her maudlin streak. It was the same feeling that she’d had the night before in the tavern, when she and Rumpelstiltskin had first talked and she had first been clued in as to his identity. He had said that her curse trusted him. It was the magic in her that had recognised the magic in him, and now it was doing so again, reminding her about just why she was here with him in the first place.

Her curse knew something about him that she didn’t, and she was determined to find out what it was.

Not now, though. In time. He had said that her curse was a complex one, so it might take some time for him to break it. It might take some time for him to find out if he would be able to break it in the first place. There might be plenty of time once they reached the Dark Castle and were out of the cold in which she could find out more about him. Because she really did want to find out more about him. She knew that she really couldn’t trust what the books said, and she had barely scratched the surface with her questioning this afternoon.

Rumpelstiltskin pulled up short, reigning his horse in.

“We’re here,” he said.

Belle came up alongside him, and looked over the mountain ridge. He had been right in the tavern when he had looked at her map; she never would have found the place so quickly had she gone on her original planned route. In fact, she wondered if he had perhaps used magic to make their journey shorter after all.

They weren’t there yet, there were still a few miles of winding roads into the foothills, but the Dark Castle was now in sight, looming impressive in the distance.

It was a foreboding place, and Belle shivered, but any fear that she felt soon gave way to anticipation. If she was going to succeed in finding a way to break her curse, then it would soon be close at hand.

She looked over at Rumpelstiltskin.

“Lead the way, Bill.”

He rolled his eyes but said nothing, and they continued down into the foothills, coming ever closer to the Dark Castle.


	5. Chapter 5

The Dark Castle was just as impressive on the inside as it was on the outside, if not more so. Whilst the outer façade was dark and imposing, the old stone walls giving the impression of a building that had been there since before time itself had begun, the rooms inside spoke more of that rich history, filled to the brim with keepsakes from all over the world – and possibly some from different worlds entirely.

Belle could quite happily have spent months looking at all of the things that Rumpelstiltskin had on display in the castle and learning about the origin of each and every one of them, but she knew that this was not the reason that she was here. She was here so that he could tell her if her curse could be broken, and if it could not, then she would be sent home to the Marchlands in short order.

Perhaps she could persuade him to let her stay on a little longer so that he could give her a tour of the vast place and let her into some of the secrets of the mementos that he held. There was a reverence in the way that all of them were displayed and she knew that they must hold some kind of meaning for him. This wasn’t a collection that was intended to impress visitors, because by his own admission he tried to put them off as much as possible. Indeed, in most of the stories that Belle had read concerning Rumpelstiltskin and the deals that he made, he usually went to the desperate rather than them venturing into his castle. Only a rare few actually got to see that sight, and she was one of them.

They had left the horses in the stables around the back of the castle, brushed down and resting with plenty of water and oats to keep them going until they were needed again. Rumpelstiltskin had assured her that the castle would ensure that they were taken care of no matter what he and Belle might get distracted with once his diagnosis of her curse had begun.

Truth be told, Belle had been putting off that moment, because it brought with it such finality. She wanted her curse broken, of course she did, but the fact that she was now so close to being told whether or not it was possible made her want to delay. What if he told her that the curse was unbreakable? What would she do then? She had pinned all her hopes on him, and she would have nothing left to do but go home and try to make the most of what remained of her days. It was going to be a momentous revelation, and not one that she was entirely ready for.

Still, she knew that she couldn’t put it off for much longer. Rumpelstiltskin had brought her here with the express purpose of identifying the curse and nothing more. He had shown her to a comfortable guest room where she could freshen up and spend the night, since darkness had fallen by the time they had arrived at the castle and tended to the horses, but it was clear that he wasn’t anticipating hosting her for long. Only as long as it took to diagnose her curse; then another deal would have to be struck.

She’d spent a comfortable night, far more comfortable than she had thought she would in the unfamiliar surroundings. After all, she was a young woman in a strange place in the middle of nowhere whose current sole company was a man made almost entirely of legends, most of which weren’t exactly complimentary. Breakfast had been waiting for her on a tray by the window when she had woken up, but she had been too nervous about what the day would bring to really partake of anything.

Belle sat down on the edge of the guest bed. What if the price to break her curse wasn’t something that she was prepared to give? They’d already talked about first-born children and the complications that brought since she’d likely die in childbirth if her curse was still in play. What if the price was something that she didn’t have and couldn’t give? She had spent so much time trying to psych herself up for the disappointment of hearing that her curse couldn’t be broken that she hadn’t given any thought to the alternative and what would happen next.

There was a sharp tap on the door.

“Are you ready, dearie?” Rumpelstiltskin’s high, twittering voice asked. Belle raised an eyebrow. Over the course of their day’s travel together, she had noticed that his voice tended to change depending on the subject matter. Whenever they turned to a topic that Belle realised was cutting close to home for whatever reason, the high and fluting tones would return, forcing them onto a different subject, trying to alleviate the mood and pretend that whatever it was that they were talking about wasn’t anywhere near as important to him as it actually was.

She got up and opened the door, giving him a little curtsey.

“My curse and I are at your service, Bill.”

He sighed and shook his head before spinning on his heel and stalking away, motioning for Belle to follow him. As he walked, she distinctly heard him mutter: “I should have picked a better name.”

They were moving at a fair pace through the castle, into the west wing that he had not shown her in the brief orienteering session she’d had when they had first arrived. Since she wasn’t going to be staying for very long, there wasn’t any point in her seeing the entirety of the castle within the first five minutes of her arrival here.

It looked like they were heading up towards the tall tower that she had seen from the outside of the castle. The higher they climbed, the more it felt like they were ascending into Rumpelstiltskin’s personal domain. The magic in the air was almost palpable, and she could definitely smell the faint burning of potions, the scent only getting stronger as they reached the top of the tower and Rumpelstiltskin opened the door.

His laboratory – it could really not be called anything else – was an impressive and foreboding place, reflecting the exterior of the castle much more than any of the rest of the interior did, well, from what she had seen of it. The workbench in the centre was covered in potion-making equipment and scraps of parchment, and the walls were stacked with shelves of various different colour vials, all meticulously labelled, even if the labels on the shelf nearest to her made no sense at all.

Rumpelstiltskin grabbed a small stool from underneath the work bench and scooted it across the floor until it stood alone in the middle of the room.

“Please sit.”

Belle obeyed, and for a long time, Rumpelstiltskin just walked around and around her, looking at her from every angle as if he was considering her for a prize. The tingling feeling on her scalp at the base of her white streak was back, and it was even more intense than it had been on the previous occasions that she had felt it.

Finally, Rumpelstiltskin stopped in front of her, his brow furrowed in thought as he rubbed his chin.

“I think I might have it,” he said eventually. “May I?”

He reached out towards the white streak. Belle had not braided her hair this morning and it was hanging loose beside her face.

“Be my guest.”

The moment he touched the streak, she felt it, like an electric shock shooting from his hand up her hair to her scalp, and she jerked away from him. He jumped back as well.

“Did you feel that too?” she asked. He nodded.

“It’s as I suspected,” he replied, although she didn’t know if he was talking to her or talking to himself. He gazed down at his hand where he had held her hair for a long time, then finally looked up at her.

“Whilst the nature of your curse still eludes me, I do believe that I know who created it,” he said.

“Who?”

“I have not always been the Dark One,” Rumpelstiltskin said cryptically. Belle was about to ask him what that had to do with her curse when he spoke again. “It’s a mantle that I have worn for a very long time, but I was not the first one to wear it. The Dark One is a title passed along from person to person, just as your curse passes through the generations.”

“You inherited it?” Belle asked.

“Not exactly. I took it on willingly, which is where the similarities between our two situations end. No, I was not always the Dark One, but I can recognise a curse that a Dark One created, and a curse will always recognise the magic that created it.”

“So… You cursed me? Well not you, but your predecessor?”

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. “No, the Dark One did not curse you. The Dark One created the curse. There’s a difference.”

“I don’t follow.”

“The Dark One created the curse. It did not cast it. Your streak is the physical manifestation of your curse and it reacted to the magic that created it. I think that the reaction would have been even stronger had that same magician cast that curse.”

“If that’s so, then who did cast it? And if your magic created it, can your magic reverse it?”

“Not so fast, dearie, one question at a time. I can’t work miracles without a little time in which to do so, you know.”

Belle gave a sigh of frustration. She was so close to her answer, and now that they’d had this breakthrough of learning where the curse had come from in the first place, she was hopeful that there could be another breakthrough very soon.  

“To answer both of your questions in one concise phrase, I don’t know.”

Belle looked up at him sharply. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I mean that I do not know. I am unaware. I do not have an answer. I can go on creating more synonyms if you like but I think you get the picture. Just because a previous Dark One created the curse, it doesn’t mean that I can necessarily reverse it. That would depend on the caster and their intentions when they used the curse. Certainly, we can build fail-safes into our magic but that doesn’t help when I don’t know who created it in the first place or what the exact nature is, nor who actually cast the finished product. The only thing that I know for certain is that this curse was created by a previous Dark One, and that it is not a magic that I have ever encountered in my admittedly very long life before.” He paused for breath after this long speech, during which he had been pacing up and down the room, talking to himself more than her. Finally, he turned to look at her properly again.

“May I?”

He indicated her streak and Belle nodded, gripping the stool tightly with both hands in anticipation of the shock of magic that had gone through her the last time that he had touched it. It nearly bowled her over again, but this time she was prepared for it, and the sensation quickly lessened to just the pleasant hum that it had always been in Rumpelstiltskin’s presence.

He closed his eyes, brow furrowed as he diagnosed the magic, and Belle had to wonder what would come next. She had been expecting a straight yes or no to the question of whether Rumpelstiltskin could break her curse and she had been mentally preparing for both of those scenarios. She hadn’t thought about the possibility of him not knowing at all whether or not the curse could be broken. Where did that leave their agreement now?

“It’s an extremely complex curse,” he said, letting go of her hair and pulling out another stool from the work. “Whoever cast it wanted to make sure that it could only be broken in very specific circumstances. Do you know of anyone in the past with a particular grudge against your family?”

Belle shook her head. “None that I know of. But at the same time, like I said before, a lot of that seems to have been lost to history. Maybe if we had kept more records, we would have been able to break the curse sooner. Perhaps it all came about as part of a disagreement that the people at the time wanted to keep swept under the rug, so they never shared the details with the future generations. Rather unhelpful, if you ask me.”

“And me,” Rumpelstiltskin muttered. “Still, never mind, we must just do what we can.”

He remained lost in thought for a long time, and Belle was beginning to think that he had forgotten that she was there.

“So, can you break it?” she asked tentatively.

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. “I don’t know. It requires further diagnosis and research. I’ll have to consult all the records that my predecessors kept, and like your own, they’re not always the most complete or concise. How long has the curse been in effect?”

“At least five centuries.”

“Well, that helps to narrow it down.”

He fell into silence again, and Belle prodded him again.

“What does this mean for our deal?” she asked. “You said that if you couldn’t break my curse you would send me home unscathed and if you could then we would deal again. But you don’t know.”

“I need more time,” Rumpelstiltskin said. “I have a proposition for you. I will work to find out the true nature of your curse and how to break it. In return, I will need you to remain here in the Dark Castle whilst I do so. Not as a prisoner, for we both know that there’s nothing to be gained in you leaving before the curse is broken. I could use some household help though. The place really needs dusting.”

Belle laughed. “Is that all? You want me to stay here and dust in return for breaking my curse?”

“Not breaking it, dearie.” Rumpelstiltskin wagged a finger at her. “I can’t promise you that.”

Belle leaned back on her stool, looking at him shrewdly.

“As much as I want my curse broken, I can’t remain here indefinitely waiting for your verdict,” she countered. “I think a time limit might be necessary. How long will you need?”

“Four months,” Rumpelstiltskin said quickly. “You shall stay here for as long as it takes to break the curse, to a maximum of four months. If I haven’t worked it out by that time, then as before, I will return you to the Marchlands unscathed. “

“Four months.” Belle nodded. “I dust, you work on my curse.”

“And if I haven’t managed to solve it in four months, then I will hang up my hat as a practitioner of magic forever,” Rumpelstiltskin declared.

Belle raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think that you need to be that drastic.”

“It’s a matter of professional pride. Very embarrassing to admit that I couldn’t establish the nature of a curse my own magic had a hand in creating.”

Belle stifled a giggle but accepted his reasoning. She put out her hand and Rumpelstiltskin shook it firmly.

The deal was struck.


	6. Chapter 6

**A Streak of Luck**

**Six**

Rumpelstiltskin was perturbed, and he had been so for a while now, probably ever since the decision had been made that Belle would stay in the castle with him until he was able to break her curse. He wasn't quite sure what had possessed him to make that deal with her in the first place, because however much he might try to convince himself otherwise, he knew that it was more than a matter of professional pride. It was indeed true that he wanted to be able to break his predecessor’s curse, but at the same time, there was something else in play, and Rumpelstiltskin was not at all sure that he liked the ramifications of that. 

Belle had been in the castle for almost a month now, and the difference was remarkable and unnerving at times. After over two centuries of being alone in the Dark Castle, it was strange to now have company in it. The place was large enough that he could avoid her for days on end if necessary, and at first he had tried to do that. Even so, even without seeing her, he could still tell that she was around. The castle itself was reacting to her presence. It had become so steeped in magic over the years that he had been living there that he would not have been surprised if it had gained some kind of sentience, and now that it had some company that wasn't just Rumpelstiltskin brooding in his tower, it was going out of its way to make its new guest feel welcome. 

For her part, Belle had settled into the castle's routine well, in that there had not been a routine before she had arrived, and she had unconsciously taken it upon herself to create one. At first Rumpelstiltskin had railed against it, but he would admit that it was nice to be able to have meals at regular times and know that there were always going to be clean bedsheets in the linen cupboards. Although the deal had been that Belle would dust in exchange for breaking her curse, with the castle's subtle guidance she had basically become a housekeeper of sorts, and in the short space of time that she had been in the place, she had managed to make vast inroads into turning the castle back into the functioning home that it had once been. 

Belle's curse was another worry playing on Rumpelstiltskin's mind. So far, his research was turning up nothing, and detailed study was proving fruitless. By a process of elimination, he had managed to trace which previous Dark One had created the curse, but that was the limit of his knowledge. He really didn't want to admit to Belle that he had hit an impasse, but at the same time, it would not have been fair to give her false hope of her curse being broken. 

He sat back in his chair, notebooks and potion ingredients scattered over the workbench in front of him, and he gazed up at the stained glass windows that broke the early evening sunlight up into multicoloured prisms. Looking up at the windows always reminded him of Bae; it had been his idea to colour the glass into such pretty patterns. The glass in here had to be stained to protect the precious ingredients that would wilt and wither in direct sunlight, but it had been Bae's idea to turn them into a thing of beauty. Bae had always been an artist, just like his mother. Rumpelstiltskin sighed, opening the drawer in the workbench where Bae's pictures lay. He had kept every drawing that his son had ever produced, and despite the ache in his heart that he felt every time he looked at them, he would not get rid of these reminders of Bae for the world.

He smiled at one of the many self-portraits, all showing how Bae had grown throughout the years, but his daydreams were cut short by the soft rapping on the door to his workroom.

“Rumpelstiltskin?”

He hastily put the papers back into the drawer and closed it before replying to Belle’s voice.

“Come in.”

She poked first her head around the door, then inserted the rest of her body. It was a habit that she had fallen into out of a sense of self-preservation, as when there was magic flying around in the workroom – which there was more often than not – she liked to stay as far away from it as possible. Rumpelstiltskin, not suffering under a curse of bad luck, would admit that he tended to forget that in Belle’s case, if something did have the capacity to go wrong, then it probably would. It wouldn’t do to be tempting fate.

Although, that said…

Since Belle’s arrival at the castle, Rumpelstiltskin couldn’t think of anything that had particularly gone wrong for her in any spectacular fashion. Considering the tales that she had told of herself and her family and their misfortunes in the past, he had been expecting all sorts of catastrophes. On her very first afternoon in the castle she had chipped a teacup, and Rumpelstiltskin had been prepared for many more unanticipated escapades of the sort.

None had come, however. He had thought about mentioning it to Belle on more than one occasion, and perhaps now was the best time to approach the subject.

Since there was no magic flying around in the workroom and there were no potions brewing and giving off noxious fumes, Belle came over to the workbench and leaned against it.

“I was going to make some tea,” she said. “Would you like some up here, or will you come down to the main hall?”

Rumpelstiltskin just looked at her. Regular teatime was not something that he had ever indulged in before Belle had come to the castle, and yet she had begun it as an institution almost as soon as she had arrived. He had just accepted it without question, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Really, Belle’s influence on his life and in his home was getting out of hand. He was going to have to work quickly to resolve this curse so that he could get her out of his hair and get everything back to the way it had been before.

“I’ll come down.”

They left the workroom together and descended the tower steps in companionable silence. Rumpelstiltskin was coming to the realisation that he wasn’t sure if he wanted things to go back to the way they had been before. He was used to solitude and loneliness; it was something that he had actively sought out many years ago and he had never had any desire to change. Now that Belle was here, it was sometimes overwhelming even with just one other person in this huge space. He did sometimes feel the need for his own space, but at the same time, he thought that he might miss her if she were to leave.

He shook his head, trying to put such nonsense to the back of his mind. He was the Dark One, he didn’t need any company. Becoming a man of myth had suited him just fine. Wasn’t that what he had wanted? Wasn’t his castle out here in the middle of nowhere in the middle of inaccessible mountains precisely because he abhorred other people?

He could never abhor Belle, though. There was something about her that made him feel… Well, he wasn’t sure what it was yet. There was something in her fearlessness and her single-minded determination in seeking him out. He admired her.

Belle brought the tea things into the main hall and pulled herself up onto the table to drink, swinging her legs. There was a thoughtful air about her today, almost pensive, and Rumpelstiltskin wondered what was on her mind before reminding himself that it was none of his business; she was here so that he could break her curse, nothing more.

“How are you getting on?” she asked him presently, almost as if she was reading his mind. He made a face.

“Unfortunately, my research appears to have stagnated rather,” he admitted. “I’m going to have to dig a little deeper into my ancestors’ history than I was anticipating. Sadly, their records are no better than your own family’s.” He paused, deciding to voice his thoughts. “Belle… Have you been as affected by your curse since you’ve been here in the Dark Castle?”

Belle gave the matter some thought, gazing into the middle distance and tracing her thumb absent-mindedly around the rim of her teacup. It was the undamaged one. Rumpelstiltskin had found himself taking the chipped cup every time they drank tea together, even though there were plenty of others in the set that they could have used.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t think I have,” she said. “It’s strange, because I’ve become so used to strange things happening to me that I don’t recognise when nothing odd has happened for a while. I just take it as the calm before the storm. But no, I think you might be onto something there. I think that the magic has been calmer.”

She reached up and touched the white streak in her hair. It was really very bright, glowing almost in its intensity. It had not been like that when they had been journeying through the Frontlands to reach the castle. It was only once she was here, in a place steeped in so many centuries of magic, that it had really come to life in this manner.

“I think the curse likes it here,” she said. The pause after her words was long and weighted, and Rumpelstiltskin could tell that there was more to say. “I like it here,” she added.

It was such a simple sentence, and yet there was so much in it to unpack.

“You do?” Rumpelstiltskin replied dumbly.

Belle smiled. “Yes, I do. There’s so much history in this place, so many stories. I love learning about all the things in here and hearing about all your adventures.”

He had not been intending to tell her all about his adventures, but she had asked him so many questions about all of his artefacts on display that he’d had to tell her, and the stories of the artefacts so often turned into long and detailed tales of how he had retrieved them and the deals that he had made in his lifetime.

“I was thinking that I might tackle the curtains tomorrow.” Belle looked over at the curtains that blocked out the rest of the world from the interior of the castle. “It looks like they could do with a good dust.”

Rumpelstiltskin snorted. They both knew that since making the deal to dust, Belle had not exactly been incredibly efficient in her duties, especially not after she had discovered the library. All the same, even with her distractions whenever she found a new book that she enjoyed, the place was certainly more hospitable than it had been before.

They continued to sit in a friendly silence whilst they drank their tea. They had fallen into this routine so easily, and that was another thing that unnerved Rumpelstiltskin. He couldn’t afford to become accustomed to her face now.

“Well, thank you for the tea, dearie, but I must be off now. Things to do, potions to brew, curses to break.”

He jumped up from his chair, practically running towards the doors out of the main hall in his haste to get away from the situation and stop thinking about Belle and about how pretty she looked with the firelight behind her.

“Rumpelstiltskin, wait, please.”

He stopped, cursing himself for doing so but at the same time still desperate to hear what she had to say.

“Yes, my dear?”

“There was something I wanted to ask you.” Belle slipped off the table and came over to him. She still looked pensive, and he wondered what it was that was troubling her. Perhaps she missed her family and she wanted to ask if she could get out of their deal early and go home to them. He couldn’t blame her if that was the case; his current progress on their quest wasn’t very encouraging.

“What’s that?”

“One of the rooms upstairs. The fourth door on the right.”

Rumpelstiltskin felt ice begin to flow through his veins.

“Yes?” he forced himself to say, trying not to betray his growing panic.

“It’s always been locked, and I’ve never pried, but yesterday you left the door open a little, so I took a peek.”

Rumpelstiltskin nodded slowly, trying not to make it obvious that he was taking very deep breaths.

“Is there a child?” she asked softly.

The room in question that she had stumbled across was the room that had always been Bae’s. He had never intended for her to see it, although he reasoned that something in his subconscious must want to share the story with her, or else he would never have been so lax about making sure that the door was always locked to her.

He shook his head.

“Not anymore.”

Belle gave a little nod of understanding. “I see.”

But did she see? Did she really understand? For some reason it was important to him that she knew the truth, and he had no idea why. It was something that he had always kept so closely guarded, for fear of it being used against him, but with Belle, things were different. Belle had already placed so much inherent trust in him when it came to her living in his home and attempting to break her curse. It felt wrong not to give her that same trust back.

He felt his shoulders sag, the wall that he had been building for so many years beginning to be chipped away, and he indicated the chaise longue at the end of the room, by the fireplace.

“It’s rather a long story,” he said. “I’ll condense it as much as I can.”

“It’s all right,” Belle said. “You don’t have to tell me. I know that it must be painful for you.”

Rumpelstiltskin blinked. “You do?”

“Why else would you keep the memories locked away?”

He hadn’t thought about it in those terms before, but it made sense. Self-preservation in every way.

Nevertheless, Belle followed him over to the chaise and sat down beside him, her hands folded primly in her lap as she prepared to listen.

“Before I was cursed, I had a son,” Rumpelstiltskin began. “I took this curse to protect him, to try and save him from the horrors of war that I had already lived through. It worked, although the price was a heavy one to pay. The Dark One is immortal. My son was not.”

He paused.

“We struck a deal, whereby if we could find a way to get rid of the curse, a way that did not harm Bae – my son – or harm me, then we would break my curse and live as we had always done. We searched high and low for a solution, but there was none to be had. Still, Bae never gave up hope, even as the years passed and he grew to be older than I had been at the time that I took this curse upon myself for him.”

“Oh Rumpel…” Belle reached out one of her hands and clasped his. “I’m so sorry.”

Rumpelstiltskin sighed.

“He always told me that he had had a good life, and that he wouldn’t regret any of it. All things considered, he did manage to live a full life. He married a girl from the local village, began a family of his own. But the fact remained that he was aging, and I was not, and there was the terrible realisation that whilst I had taken this curse to save him from war so that he would outlive me, it was not to be.”

“Is that when you chose to become a myth?” Belle asked. Her voice was soft and gentle, but something about it made him want to continue. He nodded.

“After Bae passed away, there seemed to be no point to it all anymore. What point was there in trying to break the curse so that we could be together? What point was there in the curse at all? It seemed better all around if Rumpelstiltskin became merely a legend; an old wives’ tale told to children as a warning.” He looked at her sideways. “Then of course, I met you.”

Nothing else was said. It didn’t feel like there was anything else to say. There was plenty more to be thought, but at that moment in time, the words weren’t there; the thoughts were not yet mature enough.

There was a rustle of fabric, and then Rumpelstiltskin felt the whisper of Belle’s breath on his cheek, followed by the press of her lips.

“Thank you for telling me your story,” she said.

Rumpelstiltskin just nodded. It felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from his heart, the sharing of his tale with another person, but he did not yet have the courage to tell Belle just how she was affecting him.

Still. There was plenty of time left in their arrangement for him to find the correct words.


	7. Chapter 7

**A Streak of Luck**

**Seven**

When Belle stopped to think about it, she was actually rather surprised by how quickly she had settled into life at the Dark Castle. She was even more surprised by how quickly the castle itself seemed to have settled into her being there.

She had established soon after her arrival that the castle had some degree of sentience, and she didn’t think it was such a strange thing considering just how much magic it must have been steeped in over the years of its being inhabited by powerful magicians. Rumpelstiltskin had given her several tours over the course of her stay here, taking her to different places every time, and Belle had done more than enough exploring of her own. The Dark Ones had lived in this building for many centuries and it dated back to before Rumpelstiltskin’s own tenure. True, he had been responsible for many of the extensions and a lot of the redecorating, and he was the one who had moved the castle to its current remote location after Baelfire’s passing. It was clear that of all the Dark Ones who had come before him, he was the one who had truly made the castle into his home, using it as a refuge from the outside world.

Having heard his sad story, Belle couldn’t really say that she blamed him.

Halfway up her ladder to the curtain pelmets, feather duster in hand, Belle paused, sitting down on the rung as she lost herself to thought. She wondered why Rumpelstiltskin had trusted her with his story. It wasn’t one that anyone else knew, or at least, it couldn’t be one that many other people knew because otherwise it would be common knowledge. That was the thing with myths and legends. Everyone knew about them, but when it came down to it, no-one really knew about them. Any tidbits of information would be spread far and wide, and Rumpelstiltskin’s origins would be prime fodder for new stories to be bandied about in the taverns in the Marchlands.

His tale would be safe with her, though, and she knew that he knew that. He wouldn’t have told it to her otherwise.

All the same, she did still wonder. They had not known each other all that long, and whilst Rumpelstiltskin knew a lot about her, it was all information that he needed to know in order to try and break her curse. There was no reason for him to have told her about his family unless it was for the simple desire for her to know, for him to finally share that story with another human being after so many years of being alone with only this old castle for company. In the end, despite all the magic and mystery surrounding him, he was human underneath, and he felt all the same things as a human did. Loneliness, despair, hope…

Perhaps that was why he agreed for her to stay on here in the Dark Castle in the first place. Maybe, deep down, he was just lonely. He had been alone in the world for so long, and she really couldn’t blame him needing some companionship.

He was going about it in a strange way, she’d admit that much. He did have long swathes of trying to avoid her as much as possible, but Belle accepted that. If his nature had been solitary for as long as it had been, then it was going to take some getting used to, the fact that he had accepted, however unconsciously, the fact that he was lonely. She knew better than to ask him about his motivations, knowing that she would likely only get a quip about the place being covered in dust in return.

She carefully got to her feet on the ladder again, determining to think no more about Rumpelstiltskin or his motivations for allowing her to stay in the castle. She was here to break her curse, not for any other reason, and thinking too deeply about the man who was hopefully going to be breaking said curse really wasn’t the best way of going about things. She’d helped him out with as much information about her family as she could, and now it was up to him to work whatever magic he could. She shouldn’t be distracting him by asking him about his family and his life before his own curse and afterwards.

The fact remained, though, that she really wanted to get to know him. Even though she kept telling herself that this was only a temporary measure, a deal made to both of their benefits, she found herself wanting more.

It was only then that she realised that she was lonely herself, and that aside from Will, miles away in the Marchlands keeping her mission under wraps from her father, Rumpelstiltskin was the only true friend that she’d ever had. Her curse had kept her within the boundaries of her father’s estate, and there had been precious few people aside from the stablehand who had been willing to brave her curse and get close to her. Things were different with Rumpel - when had she started calling him Rumpel? Whenever it was, he seemed to have accepted it with good grace. There was something about him that, despite his reputation, she trusted.

It was true that since she had been in the castle, her usual bad luck had not been plaguing her as much as it had always done.

The curse was happy here. It was as if this was where it had always been meant to be. Where _she_ had always been meant to be. She had not been lying when she said that she liked it in the castle herself, and it was not just because the magic that had surrounded her since birth had calmed here.

“Belle? Belle? Where are you? Belle?”

Rumpelstiltskin sounded excited, and that stirred a spark of hope somewhere inside Belle as well.

“I’m in the main hall,” Belle called to him. “I’m sorting out the curtains.”

That was only halfway true. She had been intending to sort out the curtains before she got side-tracked into thinking and daydreaming about Rumpelstiltskin, and she hadn’t actually begun her self-appointed task yet.

Rumpelstiltskin skidded into the room as if all the hounds of hell were after him, and everything happened rather quickly after that. Belle didn’t know if it was his sudden appearance knocking her off balance, or if it was something else, or even if it was her curse deciding that she’d had it easy for a while and now it was time for her bad luck to once more come to the fore. Whatever it was, one moment she was standing at the top of the ladder dusting the pelmets, the and next she was falling through the air, closing her eyes against the inevitable painful thud that would ensue when she hit the ground.

Except, she didn’t hit the ground. Instead she hit firm and secure arms, and she opened her eyes to see that Rumpelstiltskin had caught her in her tumble.

Neither of them moved for a moment, perhaps both scared that having averted one catastrophe, another one would follow hot on its heels, like the pelmet falling down from its brackets and concussing them both.

When nothing else appeared to be looming on the horizon, Rumpelstiltskin finally seemed to remember that he was still holding Belle in a bridal carry, and he set her back on her feet, dusting himself down and trying very hard to look like nothing had happened. He was failing miserably. Belle for her part, once the shock of the fall had passed, was still thinking about just how safe and secure she had felt in his arms when she realised that she hadn’t actually thanked him for catching her.

“Thank you,” she blurted out.

“Well, I couldn’t have you turned into a splat of jam on my floor now, could I?” Rumpelstiltskin quipped. “It would take forever to get the stains out.”

His heart wasn’t in the remark, however, his usual teasing tone seemed rather absent. Belle could feel the flush of embarrassment rising in her cheeks, and she wondered if Rumpelstiltskin could blush under his strange complexion. She had a feeling that if he could, he would be doing so too.

She glanced over at the window where the curtains had torn in her rapid descent.

“I’m so sorry about that.”

He waved away her worries with a customary flourish. “It’s no matter. They needed rejuvenating anyway. No time like the present.”

They fell back into silence, Rumpelstiltskin looking down at himself and then across at Belle as if wondering how they had come to be in such close proximity.

“What was it that you wanted me for, Rumpel?” Belle asked.

“Sorry, what?”

“You were calling me, asking where I was.”

“Oh. Yes.” He came back to himself from whatever far-off corner of his mind he had been pre-occupied with before, and coughed, straightening up. “I do believe that I have discovered the identity of the person who cast the curse.”

“That’s wonderful!” Belle clapped her hands in excitement. “Maybe now we can work out why they cast it and how it can be reversed. Who was it?”

“According to the notes of my predecessor Viviane, it was a young noblewoman named Evangeline of Avonlea. She came to Viviane looking for a curse that would endure through the female bloodline no matter how long might pass between girls being born. This was five hundred and seventy-six years ago, so I think Viviane certainly stuck to her end of the bargain. In return for creating the curse, the then-Dark One received half of Evangeline’s substantial inheritance. Apparently the talent for spinning straw into gold wasn’t universal back then.”

Belle sat down on the chaise, turning this new information over in her mind.

“The name isn’t familiar,” she said. “I’ve never heard anyone mention an Evangeline in all of the things I’ve heard and read about the curse, but then again, it was so long ago. And if she was Evangeline of Avonlea, then it does beg the question as to why she would want to curse the Marchlands noble line. Unless of course there was some big family feud at the time.”

“Or she might have married in,” Rumpelstiltskin suggested. “Or one of her relations might have married in.”

Belle nodded. “Yes, that’s certainly one likely explanation. I suppose that the easiest way to find out would be to take a look at the family tree, but I didn’t exactly bring it with me when I left the Marchlands and I know my memory’s good, but it’s not that good.” She turned to Rumpelstiltskin, an idea forming in her mind. “Do you have any heritages of all the noble families stored up in here somewhere?”

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. “It’s never really been within my field of interest,” he said. “A desperate soul is a desperate soul no matter what walk of life they may have come from. Desperation is a great leveller of men.”

Belle thought for a moment. “I suppose that we could always procure the heritage documents from my father,” she said.

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. “And how were you proposing that we should do that? I have visions of us mounting a daring assault on your father’s study and sneaking out of the window using ropes, which given your mishaps with being high up that have already happened this morning, I’m not sure would be a good idea.”

Belle sighed, giving him a look that she hoped expressed her feelings without the need for words. Rumpelstiltskin just hid a little grin behind his hand, which at least told her that he’d got the message even if he hadn’t taken it with the contrition that she’d wanted.

“I wasn’t suggesting that we do the procuring ourselves,” she said. “I could get Will to steal it. He’s very good at that kind of thing.”

“Will being your companion to whom you keep sending messages saying, ‘all well, not dead yet, nearly fell to my doom this morning’?” Rumpelstiltskin snipped. Belle raised her eyebrows at the tone of his words. It was far different from how he usually sounded, and she wondered what had rankled him so much.

“Yes. That Will. Do you have a problem with that? I wouldn’t invite him to bring it here, of course, he’d never be able to get back to the Marchlands before he was missed, and I know you don’t like strangers knowing how to find your castle, but we could perhaps meet him halfway at the border between the lands. He could bring us all the books we need, and it would be nice to see him again.”

“I suppose you must miss him a lot.” Rumpelstiltskin’s voice was softer again now, with an almost tragic quality to it, and he had turned away from her.

“Of course I miss him,” Belle said. “He was basically my only friend in the castle. We grew up together and we spent most of our time together before I left to find you.”

Rumpelstiltskin nodded, still seemingly in a world of his own. “Yes. It would be good for you to see him again.”

Belle knew that there was something hanging unsaid in the air between them, and she touched his arm lightly, making him jump and turn back towards her.

“Is there something wrong, Rumpel?” she asked. “If you don’t want Will to be involved then we can think of another way, but he knows everything about what we’ve been doing so far. He’s my closest confidant and I trust him with my life. He’s like a brother to me.”

“A… brother?”

Rumpelstiltskin seemed incredibly surprised, and although he made haste to hide it, incredibly relieved at the same time. Belle smiled inwardly.

“Rumpelstiltskin, are you jealous?”

“What? No! That’s an absolutely preposterous idea, what on earth are you talking about? Why on earth would I be jealous of the young pipsqueak that you’re constantly writing to and telling all about your wonderful adventures in the Dark Castle?”

Belle just continued to level him with her gaze, determined that he wasn’t going to wriggle out of this one. They’d only just got to the stage where he was spending extended amounts of time with her and was opening up and telling her about his family. She wasn’t about to let him take a few steps backwards in what was shaping up to be a wonderful friendship.

Rumpelstiltskin wilted visibly under the force of her stare.

“I think it’s good that you’ve had such a good friend,” he said, looking down at his feet rather than at her.

“Are you sure that you’re not the tiniest bit jealous?” Belle teased. Rumpelstiltskin levelled her a stare of his own, and Belle decided not to push it. All the same, she had to wonder what had made him so jealous of her friendship with Will in the first place. Could it possibly be because he entertained some kind of deeper feelings towards her himself? No, that idea was ridiculous. Although, that said… She had just been wondering about the possibility of her own deeper feelings for him. Maybe there was something there between them. Maybe this friendship had the potential to become something more.

Belle shook her head, determining to think no more about it when there was other work to be done.

“Well, if you’re agreeable to the idea of us meeting Will and him bringing the necessary things from my father, then I’ll go and write to him now.”

Rumpelstiltskin nodded. “Yes, I think that would be a good idea. I’m not sure if we will be able to make any further progress without more detailed knowledge of your family tree.”

He seemed to have perked up a bit now that she had returned his attention to the matter at hand, and Belle left the room to go and send a message to Will. It would be good to see him again after these weeks apart and update him in person about everything that had been happening in the Dark Castle.

She decided not to tell him about her tumble from the ladder, or how safe she had felt in Rumpel’s arms when he had caught her. There were some things that couldn’t be shared with even the closest of friends.

 


	8. Chapter 8

The ride back to the border between the Marchlands and the Frontlands took the best part of a day, but to Belle it felt like it was dragging on for even longer than that. She was so excited to be able to see Will again and give him a progress update in person that every second seemed to last forever. Philippe seemed to share her restlessness, often pulling away ahead of Rumpelstiltskin on his own mount, and then they would have to spend interminable minutes waiting for him to catch up.

At least Philippe had the excuse of wanting to make the most of this venture out into the wide world again. Although Belle took him out of the stables every day to make sure that he got enough exercise, during the last few weeks they had been limited to the Dark Castle grounds. He was just so happy to be outside and enjoying new scenery again that Belle couldn’t really blame him being somewhat more high-spirited than usual.

At last they reached the tavern where Belle had first met Rumpelstiltskin, and she leapt off Philippe’s back with an exclamation of joy when she saw Will’s familiar piebald horse tied up in the stables. Still, it wouldn’t do to be getting too ahead of herself just yet. Here on the border, she was far more likely to be recognised, and if her father’s knights were out looking for her, then she really didn’t want them to find her here and take her back to the Marchlands. She especially didn’t want them to find her here with Will; who knew what might happen to him as a result?

So, as much as she wanted to race into the tavern and throw her arms around him in happiness, she restrained herself, making sure that Philippe was fed and watered and comfortable in the stables before pulling her hood up and trying to make herself look as inconspicuous as possible. Beside her, Rumpel had done the same, although she knew from their previous adventures here that the stablehands and most of the other drunkards around the tavern wouldn’t be able to see him anyway.

“All right there, Bill?” she asked lightly as they entered the low building.

“You’re never going to let me live that one down, are you?” he muttered to himself.

“Not at all, but I think that it’s fitting that you should go back to that nickname now that we’re back here where you first chose it. Everything’s come full circle.”

Rumpelstiltskin just glowered at her from the depths of his hood, and Belle smiled to herself. She spotted Will in one corner, far away from the bar. He too was obviously keeping a low profile, but he nodded in recognition when the two of them caught his eye, and he waved them over.

“Long time no see, then, Belle.” He stood up as she came towards him and Belle could no longer fight the desire to throw her arms around him. “How have you been keeping?”

“Very well, thank you, Will. Even better now that we think we’re on the edge of a breakthrough.”

“Yeah, I got all the documents you said you wanted.” Will patted his saddlebags. “Still not sure what on earth you’re going to do with them though.”

“Any kind of knowledge that we can glean about this curse is good knowledge,” Belle said. “If we can work out who cast the curse then perhaps we can work out why, and perhaps, just perhaps, we can work out what we need to do to break it.” She noticed that Will was no longer looking at her, but was instead focussed on her companion. She looked between the two men for a moment and decided that introductions would probably be in order.

“Rumpelstiltskin, this is my friend Will. Will, Rumpelstiltskin, although he does also answer to Bill.”

“No I don’t!” Rumpel hissed. He peeked further out of his hood, enough for Will to get a proper look at his face. Will’s eyebrows shot to his hairline momentarily, but then he relaxed.

“You know, Belle, obviously I didn’t doubt you when you said you’d found Rumpelstiltskin and you were working with him, but meeting you in the flesh…”

“What’s the matter, dearie? Don’t like what you see? Or are you wondering if the rumours are true?”

“Neither, really.” Will didn’t rise to the obvious barb in Rumpel’s voice, and Belle was incredibly grateful that Will was rarely flustered by anything. “Just wondering how you came to be such a myth if you’re still alive.”

“Well. I’m sure that Belle will be able to tell you all about that tale in due course once her curse has broken.”

It was interesting to see Rumpel with his feathers ruffled like this, and even more interesting to see Will’s reaction to it. There was a little smirk on his face that Belle had seen there many times before, usually when he was keeping some kind of secret that he couldn’t wait to share with her. Belle wondered if she was wearing the same sort of expression herself. There were so many things to talk to Will about, and they were things that couldn’t really be given the proper justice in a letter.

“How are things back home?” she asked, trying to break through the tension that had gathered at the table, or more specifically at Rumpel’s end of the table. “How’s my father?”

“He’s worried about you,” Will said pointedly. “Whilst he’s not got to the stage of sending out patrols to try and bring you back just yet, he’s getting very antsy and I do dread to think what he’s going to do if you aren’t back at the end of your four months. He’s had Cogsworth scouring all the archives looking for some kind of cure for you.”

Belle sighed, rolling her eyes. “Does he really think that I haven’t done all that a hundred times before? Honestly, I love my father but he never really showed much interest in helping me to break my curse before I left. It really took me leaving the land for him to realise that perhaps my life wasn’t a lost cause after all and there might be a way to get around this curse?”

Will shrugged. “You’ve certainly galvanised the place into action. Ana keeps giving me all the gossip from the kitchens; you’d have to hear it to believe it.”

“Ana’s the pretty blonde one whom you were almost discovered in flagrante in the hayloft with, yes?” Belle remembered the incident clearly. Will’s ears went decidedly pink and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“Yes, that was Ana.” He paused. “You are going to come back, aren’t you?”

Belle nodded. “Of course. Four months. That’s the agreement. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Rumpelstiltskin remained silent at his corner of the table, but beneath the hood, Belle could tell that he was lost in thought. Suddenly he burst into activity, smacking his hands on the table.

“Right, well, if you hand over all the necessary paperwork then I think I ought to get down to the devil in the details of this family tree. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to head home this very night.” He gave one of his high-pitched giggles, the sound meant to alienate and unnerve, and as Will handed over the documents, he practically ran out of the room in the direction of the stables. “I’ll leave you two to catch up!”

Will watched him go and raised an eyebrow before turning back to Belle.

“Well, he’s definitely a character, I’ll give you that much. How on earth did you manage to find him?”

“He found me, really. But enough of that, there’s something that you know that I don’t, I can see it in your face. What is it?”

Will laughed. “Oh Belle, if you can’t work it out for yourself then I’m not sure that you deserve to know.”

Belle felt her face heat up as she realised what it was that Will was getting at, and she turned away with a cough. She remembered the conversation she’d had with Rumpel when she’d first made the suggestion that they ask Will to bring the documents they needed. She’d asked him if he’d been jealous, and she had wondered if there had been the possibility of something more coming from their relationship. Over the last few days, the feelings had only solidified, and Belle had found herself hoping more and more that something would indeed grow.

A sly finger poked her in the arm and she turned back towards Will, giving him an unimpressed look. He threw his hands up in defence.

“For what it’s worth, Belle, I think that he definitely feels the same way about you. It’s been very interesting to watch you both.” He paused. “Tell me, Belle… Do you really want to come back home?”

“What? Of course I want to come back home.”

“Ok, I’ll rephrase that. Are you sure that you want to come back home if, after four months, your curse isn’t broken? Are you sure that you might not renegotiate your deal to stay a little longer?”

Ah. Will had certainly backed in her into a corner there. It was a topic that she had tried to avoid thinking about - what would happen when the contract came to an end, either with him breaking her curse or the passage of time bringing it to a natural conclusion. Although she would admit it to no-one but herself, she was hoping that everything would take as long as possible to allow her to remain with Rumpel for as long as she could before she had to return to the Marchlands, and in all likelihood, never see him again. She didn’t hold out much hope that he would leave behind his reclusive lifestyle and drop in to visit her at her father’s castle having spent so long cultivating the myths and legends around him.

“Well... I really do want this curse to be broken,” Belle hedged. “And it’s been so much calmer whilst I’ve been in the Dark Castle. It hasn’t affected my life anywhere near as much as it did before when I was still in the Marchlands. If it’s not broken at the end of the contract, then perhaps it would be better for me to stay somewhere where it’s not debilitating.”

Will gave a slow nod. “Are you sure that’s the only reason?”

Belle sighed. He was her closest friend and he knew her inside out; he had done since they were children.

“He’s been alone for so long and I think he enjoys having the companionship, especially of someone who knows what it’s like to shoulder a curse. I really like him,” she admitted. “More than that.”

“Like I said, I think the feeling’s mutual. But you never know. I’m sure that there are plenty of agreements that you can come to in order to extend your stay.”

“Won’t that make life difficult for everyone back in the Marchlands? I never had any intention to stay away indefinitely when I left; I just wanted my curse to be broken.”

“I’m sure that we’ll manage,” Will assured her. “When it comes to happiness, I’d far rather that you were happy than I had a quiet life. Besides, I’ve got Ana running interference, you’ll be fine.”

Belle reached over and hugged him again. “Thank you, Will.”

It did make her think, though. When Rumpel had left them, flippantly announcing that she might be able to go home this very night if he could find what it was that he was looking for within the texts, her immediate reaction had been elation at the prospect of her curse being broken, but she did not feel any kind of excitement at the prospect of returning home. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she didn’t actually want to return home tonight. There were still so many things in the Dark Castle that she wanted to explore; there were so many things that she wanted to talk to Rumpel about.

“It’s getting late,” Will said. “I should probably head off if I’m going to get back before I’m missed too much.”

Belle nodded, and they headed out towards the stables together, almost tripping over Rumpel, who was sitting cross-legged in the shadows, transfixed by the papers. He looked up.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to go back to the castle,” he said, and there was genuine contrition in his voice. Belle felt slightly guilty that her reaction to this news was a relieved one. “This is too complicated for a magical miracle cure within the next few minutes.”

“That’s all right. I wasn’t expecting one.”

They said their goodbyes to Will, who promised to keep sending regular updates about life in the Marchlands and, despite several protests that there was nothing _that_ serious going on between them, he also promised to send invitations to his and Ana’s wedding when that did eventually occur.

The ride back towards the Dark Castle was a quiet and subdued one, both Belle and Rumpelstiltskin lost in their own feelings. Belle didn’t know what to do now. It had been wonderful to see Will again, for however short a time. She had missed her friend, but as she thought more about it, she realised that she had not really missed her home as much as she thought she might when she first set out on this venture.

She glanced over at Rumpel, who was still shrouded by his hood. She wished that she could see his face and know what he was thinking, although she realised that he was probably being mysterious on purpose for that very reason. He had seemed so sad when he had not been able to send her back to the Marchlands with Will that evening, her curse broken and all well with the world, but Belle didn’t get the impression that it was because he was eager to be rid of her. Despite all the quips of her being accident-prone and the worst housekeeper he’d ever had, she knew that he enjoyed her presence. She had spent enough time talking with him in quiet moments, when neither of them were engaged in curse-breaking research, to know that he felt comfortable with her.

No, he had wanted her to be able to go home not for his sake, but for her own. He had wanted to be able to let her go and release her from the deal, a solution found. He wanted to be able to break her curse so that she could continue to live her life, and if that was apart from him, then so be it.

Belle’s heart flip-flopped in her chest. Could there be something deeper at work here? They did always say that if you loved someone, you ought to let them go. Her own feelings certainly tended towards that direction. All she needed to do now was to work out whether Rumpel’s feelings tended in the direction that she thought they did. That was going to be easier said than done. Belle had always been bold, and her adventure in search of a cure for her curse had certainly emboldened her further, but asking Rumpel outright what he felt about her felt too much. Teasing him about being jealous of Will was one thing; that was all in fun and there was not meant to be anything in it. Having a serious discussion was quite another. What if it turned out that she’d got entirely the wrong end of the stick and he was offended by her assumptions, and he refused to help her any further? She did not want to lose their friendship as a result of it.

All the same, time was ticking away, and the time when they would have to part at the end of their agreement, curse broken or not, would soon be at hand. Something had to be done before that moment. The only question was what.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **CW for this chapter:** Suicide mention

Objectively, Rumpelstiltskin knew that he ought to be doing something a bit more productive than just pacing up and down his workroom feeling sorry for himself. The final week of his four-month agreement with Belle was upon him, and he was still no nearer to finding the cause for or cure to her curse.

Well, that wasn’t strictly true. They had found out a lot more than they knew when they had first started the venture. They’d found out which Dark One had created the curse, and they had found the identity of the person who had cast it and how they fitted in with Belle’s family tree. Evangeline of Avonlea’s daughter, Elizabeth, had married into the Marchlands noble line three years before the curse was cast, and had died a year after giving birth to her only child.

Further investigation into Belle’s heritage documents revealed a more sinister truth - Elizabeth, deeply depressed, had ended her own life. It was looking ever more likely that the curse had been cast on the Marchlands line had been cast as a form of revenge by Evangeline on the family that had caused her daughter so much unbearable pain.

The marriage between Elizabeth of Avonlea and Horace of the Marchlands had been arranged by their fathers for the benefit of both lands, and during the long nights of their research together, Belle had thought up all kinds of theories as to how the curse had come to be cast. She had entertained Rumpel with them for hours, but sadly, none of what they had found and none of what they had speculated had given them any clues as to how the curse could be broken. It seemed that Evangeline’s ire was such that the curse would never break; she had been determined that the Marchlands noble line would suffer until it was snuffed out. Perhaps she had not bargained on it having such a strong male line.

“Why curse the women?” Belle had asked the previous evening. “If Elizabeth had made an unhappy marriage, surely it would make more sense for her to have cursed the male line.”

“Not necessarily,” Rumpel said. “She had lost her daughter, after all. If she wanted to inflict the maximum pain with her curse, then she would want them to feel the same pain she had - the loss of their own daughters. Also, what with male inheritance of titles and all other such outdated notions that I’ve never understood the ruling classes’ obsession with, the noble line will continue as long as there are male heirs. If she’d cursed the male line to have short lives and terrible luck then the title and legacy would have died out much sooner.”

Belle conceded the point. “I guess that’s true. I just wish that we knew how to appease Evangeline so many centuries after her own death. It’s a long grudge to bear, and I’m sure that the Avonlea noble family knows nothing of this. They certainly bear us no ill will now, and even in the wake of these revelations, I bear them no ill will. The sins of the father and all that. Well, the mother in this case.”

They had continued to puzzle out Evangeline’s motivations for a while longer, but ultimately, they were still no closer to working out how to break the curse, and Rumpelstiltskin could tell that it was having an effect on Belle. For the last couple of days, she had been unhappy, far from her usual bright and enthusiastic self. He had often caught her staring out of the Dark Castle’s windows with a far-off, wistful look in her eyes, and it was with a heavy heart that Rumpelstiltskin realised the reason for her abstraction.

Soon she would have to leave the castle, and she would be leaving without the cure that she had sought. Despite all his assurances that four months would be enough time in which to break the curse, he had failed her.

Truth be told, Rumpelstiltskin himself was not looking forward to the moment of Belle’s departure, and he had been wondering about various ways in which he could extend her stay. Since he had not found her cure, it would make sense for her to stay on in the castle until one could be procured.

He shook his head, stopping his pacing up and down the workroom and throwing himself down into his chair. Over the course of the last couple of hundred years, he had become quite accustomed to brooding alone, thinking of his seemingly endless life stretching out in front of him with no-one to share it with.

It would be selfish of him to ask Belle to stay on. When they had gone to meet Will, she had been firm in her assertion that she would be back in the Marchlands at the end of her four-month stay away, no matter what happened. It was clear how much she missed her friend, and he couldn’t ask her to keep chasing the dream of a cure that might never happen. If he had not managed to find one by now, then the chance of him finding one in the future was looking ever smaller.

There was the small matter of her curse not seeming to affect her as badly whilst she was in the Dark Castle. Over the last few weeks since they had received the documents from Will, her little mishaps had dwindled to nearly nothing, and if it weren’t for the white streak in her hair that still hummed with magic, calling out to him whenever he came near, he would have begun to believe that there was no curse at all. Surely she would want to stay somewhere that kept her symptoms at bay, even if they had never been able to establish a reason for this.

No, that was just a dream of his. She needed to go home. She wanted to go home.

Perhaps… Maybe he could visit her once she went home to the Marchlands? He had not ventured out from his castle on a regular basis for many years, only when he heard a truly desperate soul in need, just as he had heard Belle and gone to investigate her. It was even longer since he had left the safe borders of the Frontlands. He did not like to stray too far away from where he had lived with Bae; he liked to be surrounded by the memories of his son’s happy life to remind him that he made the right choice to take on the curse of the Dark One and let Bae lead a normal life.

All the same, a little trip to see Belle wouldn’t cause too much harm. He would of course continue his research in her absence, and if he could turn up one day and present her with the cure she had so long sought, then hopefully their friendship would be maintained.

Rumpelstiltskin pushed all his hopes of their friendship ever becoming anything more to the back of his mind. That really wasn’t something that he ought to be dwelling on in the current circumstances.

A knock on the door to the workroom pulled him out of his miserable spiral of thought, and he straightened in his chair, trying not to look as if he had just been moping. With so little time left before their inevitable parting, he really ought to be spending as much time as possible being productive.

Belle peered around the door, and on seeing that Rumpel was not caught up in something terribly important or delicate, she came in fully. There was nervousness in her manner; when she spoke, it was with a brightness that masked a trembling.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you all over the castle. I’m starting to think that you’ve been avoiding me.”

Well, that was true in a way. He had been steering well clear of her in an attempt to break his infatuation, but the moment he saw her again, he knew it hadn’t worked.

“Well, you’ve certainly found me,” he said. “What can I do for you, Belle?”

“I was wondering… As you know, I only have a few days left at the castle before our deal is up.”

Rumpel nodded. “Yes. I know you must be eager to get back to your home, and I’m sorry that I have been unable to provide you with the cure you need in the time. Although I promised to hang up my hat as a practitioner of magic should I be unable to break the curse, if you’ll permit, I would like to keep working on it after you leave. No curse is unbreakable, no matter how much thought my predecessor put into it.”

“Oh. Yes. No. It’s not that. Well, it is. I would be very happy for you to keep working on my case. In fact, that was what I was going to ask. Well, part of it. What I was going to ask was if we could renegotiate?”

“Renegotiate?” Rumpel’s heart beat hard in his chest. Could she really be asking what he thought that she was asking?

“Yes. I was hoping that we would be able to extend the deal. I mean, my curse is so much happier here than it is at home, and whilst I do miss Will and my other family back in the Marchlands, it’s not as if I’m cut off from them forever.”

Rumpel didn’t say anything for a long time, scarcely able to believe what he was hearing.

“Rumpel?” Belle tilted her head on one side, searching his face for some kind of reaction to her request. “If you don’t like the idea then I could go, but I would have thought that having me here would be much easier for your research.”

Rumpel nodded slowly. “Yes. No. I mean yes, it would certainly make things easier if you were to remain. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Belle nodded. “Yes, I’m certain.” There was a long pause and she turned away, moving to gaze out of the window. “I like it here,” she said. “I like being here with you. It’s not just the curse being more manageable, although I can’t deny that makes the world of difference to my life. But when I’m here with you, I’m able to forget that I was even cursed in the first place.”

“I like you being here,” Rumpel admitted. He moved across to stand beside her. It felt important to take that step, to assure her that they were on the same page, at least, he thought they were. “With you here I’ve been able to forget how lonely I’ve been for these past hundred years. You’ve reminded me that there are things out there – and people – that make life worth living. To tell you the truth, Belle, I had been considering offering to extend your stay here myself.”

Belle looked at him curiously. “Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to take you away from your family and your friends, your chance at a happy life. It would be selfish for me to keep you here when there’s so much out there.”

“It’s not selfish if I want to be here too.” The little smile creeping over Belle’s face was luminous, and when she placed her hands gently on Rumpel’s shoulders, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. He had gone so long without the simple comfort of the human touch that Belle’s tactile nature had been alarming at first, but now he welcomed it.

“Rumpel, I…”

Whatever she was going to say, it was lost in the moment, and if she said anything, Rumpel didn’t hear it. As he gazed into her bright blue eyes, all he could think about was the fact that, slowly and surely, he had fallen head over heels in love with this remarkable woman, and there was no use in trying to deny the fact anymore. He knew that it could only end in tears. They were both cursed, for a start, her to a short life and him to an unending one. He was so much older than her and he had seen so much tragedy in his long life. She couldn’t possibly feel the same way.

But there again, her hands were on his shoulders, and those brilliant blue eyes were searching his, and her plump bottom lip was worrying between her teeth.

And all curses could be broken. Both Belle’s and his had a cure somewhere.

Something in the back of his mind started clanging pots and pans together, determined to have its sudden realisation heard. Rumpel knew that he’d just remembered something incredibly important, but whatever it was flew clean out of his mind as Belle went up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.

It was a nervous kiss, born from a moment of bravery, throwing the rulebook out of the window and just going for it, uncaring for whatever the consequences might be. Rumpelstiltskin slipped his arms around Belle’s back, returning the kiss wholeheartedly. Even if everything ended up going very wrong after this moment, then the four months were almost over, and they never needed to see each other again after that.

As Belle’s mouth opened and her eager tongue darted out over his lips, however, Rumpel didn’t think that it would come to that. His entire body felt like it was tingling all over, and he closed his eyes and just gave into the sensation. It had been so long since he’d felt anything like this, back long before he had been cursed. Even so, there was something about kissing Belle that was indescribable. It was as if it was meant to be, as if everything in his life had ultimately been leading him to this moment. This was why he had never found a way to end the Dark Curse after Bae’s passing. He had been meant to survive this long and he had been meant to meet Belle.

Finally, they broke apart, and as Rumpel opened his eyes, he startled at the sight in front of him. Similarly, Belle jumped back half a step, her eyes widening.

“Belle, your hair…” Rumpel began, but Belle interrupted.

“Your skin!” she exclaimed.

Rumpel looked down at the back of his hand, giving an unseemly squawk of surprise when he saw the blush of pink, human skin spreading over the mottled grey scales; dark claw-like fingernails shortening and becoming normal once more.

He whirled around, grabbing the cover off the looking glass that stood in the corner of the room. He had always kept the mirrors in the place covered; they were easily used by spies. This time, though, he needed to see what was happening with his own two eyes. Belle came to stand beside him as he watched his mesmerised reflection return to the human complexion that he had not seen for centuries. Her own hands came to her mouth as she saw her own image.

Belle’s hair was completely white, the same snowy colour that had marked her maudlin streak now covered her crown, the last strands of brown just fading out at the tips.

“I think you broke my curse,” she whispered. “ _Should a lady survive till her crown is as white as her streak, the curse will be lifted, and the lineage restored._ That’s what the curse says. And you…”

Rumpel nodded. “I think you broke my curse too.”

“So, that’s the end of the Dark One, as well as my curse?” Belle hedged. “Have we really broken two curses with one kiss? A kiss was all it took?”

“Yes.” The thought that had occurred to Rumpel just as the point they had kissed suddenly came back to him in a rush of jubilation. “Yes! Oh, how stupid of me, why didn’t I think of it before? True Love’s Kiss can break any curse!”

“True Love’s Kiss.” Belle ran her fingers over her lips. “Yes, I think that must be it. Although…”

Rumpel’s heart was beating painfully in his mouth as he turned to her. Was she having second thoughts? Surely the kiss would not have worked and would not have broken both of their curses if the feeling wasn’t true and mutual. “Yes?”

“I think we ought to do it again. Just to be absolutely sure that the curses are gone.”

Rumpel let out a huff of relieved laughter, welcoming her into his arms and pressing his lips against hers readily once more. After all the months of research, this was what it had come down to, a simple kiss. Not that there was anything simple about true love, of course; it was the most powerful magic there had ever been.

He tangled his fingers into Belle’s silky hair, no longer feeling any kind of magical pulse to it. There again, his own magic was dissipating now, the powers that the curse had given him vanishing away back into the ether. There was still something there, alive at the back of his mind. One couldn’t live around magic for so long without it rubbing off a little, but the darkness, the insidious voice in his head that had been his constant companion for so long, was well and truly gone.

Belle broke the kiss with a happy sigh, nudging her forehead against his.

“I love you, Rumpelstiltskin.”

“And I love you, Belle.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Ten**

“I don’t think that Will’s going to believe his eyes when he sees us.”

“Well, he’ll probably believe you. I, however, look rather more different to how he last saw me.”

Belle rolled her eyes. “You don’t look that much different.”

“I’m not quite sure whether or not to take that as a compliment considering what I looked like before.” Rumpel looked across at her with a raised eyebrow, and although Belle knew that he was not entirely serious, there was a part of him that needed the reassurance.

“You were still just as attractive as you are now, when you were cursed,” she said. “Do I need to spell it out any finer?”

“No, no, that’s enough.”

It was a bright and sunny day, although cold as the weather began to turn towards winter, and their breath was curling into mist as they rode along the familiar roads from the Dark Castle towards the Marchlands.

One week had passed since their curses had broken simultaneously, and a small part of Belle was still having trouble believing what had happened, and that the answer had been so simple when it came down to it. Although she was keen to explore the origins of the curse further, she had been distracted from her efforts by the very real true love that had grown between her and Rumpel. Now that they both knew about it and had accepted it, they were taking every opportunity that they could to indulge in it, knowing that there were no curses or ill omens on the horizon that could cut their happiness short.

Now that Belle was no longer cursed and knew that she had a long life to look forward to – as long as nothing spectacular happened – she was determined to make up for the years that had been lost to her bad luck, and do all the things that she had never been able to do before for fear of them blowing up in her face (literally, in some cases). Most of all, though, she just wanted to spend time with Rumpel, especially as he had been avoiding her so much for the weeks leading up to their momentous revelation.

The decision to return home had been an easy one to make. Belle had always maintained that she would return home at some point, once her curse had been broken, and Rumpel knew that there was nothing keeping him tied to the Dark Castle with any such permanence that he could not accompany her on her triumphant return to her homeland. The castle contained all of his trinkets and the wealth that he had accumulated over the years, and it contained all of his memories of Bae, but he had accepted that Bae was always with him no matter where he went, and this was not a final leave-taking. Belle had no doubt that they would be returning to the Dark Castle in due course, and all of the magical protections that he had put in place to hide it had not faded with the loss of the Dark One’s powers.

“What’s your father going to say?”

Rumpel’s question brought Belle out of her daydream and she grimaced.

“I had been trying not to think about that. Once he’s finished reprimanding me for running away and making him worried, he’ll probably be very relieved that the curse is broken, and everything will return to an even keel. He’ll call off all the patrols and everyone’s blood pressure will go back to normal.”

Rumpel gave a snort of laughter but then fell back into a contemplative silence for a long while. There was evidently more on his mind, and Belle waited patiently for him to voice it.

“I meant about you and me. You’re a noblewoman, and if you hadn’t been cursed there’s no doubt that you would have been betrothed to some young and strapping knight in a bid to unite your father’s lands with the lord next door’s. I hardly think that Sir Maurice is going to take kindly to you returning from your travels with me in tow.”

Belle shrugged. “I can’t see that he has any leg to stand on when it comes to objections. Certainly, you aren’t noble, but you are my true love and you broke my curse. I think that has to count for something.”

A thought came to her with perfect clarity, and it began to link everything together in her mind.

“In fact, I don’t think he’ll be able to complain at all, because I think that this is the entire origin of the curse and it breaking.”

Rumpel looked at her askance. “Belle, we’ve been researching this curse for months. True Love’s Kiss breaks any curse.”

“Exactly,” Belle pressed, the theory refining itself as she talked it out. “True Love’s Kiss is all powerful and will break any curse. What if that was what Evangeline was counting on? What if True Love’s Kiss is the only thing that can break my curse? Evangeline cast the curse because her daughter died as a result of an unhappy arranged marriage. Her daughter had been wed to someone whom she did not love, let alone someone who was her soulmate and True Love. What if Evangeline made it so that the curse was unbreakable except by the only thing that can break any curse?”

Rumpel nodded slowly. “Yes. That makes sense.”

“It’s really simple when you think about it. The curse will endure for as long as the ladies of the bloodline are forced into arranged marriages instead of being able to be with their True Love. My curse was horrible whilst it lasted, but I was able to live with it for long enough to meet you. If I’d already been married off to some young nobleman whom I didn’t love, then I don’t think I would have got this far.”

“And the curse was tempered in my presence, which was a sign that you ought to stay with me.”

Belle smiled. “I think we might have cracked it. My father’s going to have to accept you whether he likes it or not. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that.”

It felt strange to be so close to home again. Although she had not been gone all that long, it still felt like so much had happened during that time. She had unravelled the mystery of her curse, and she had broken that curse. Taking the risk and setting out on her own had worked, and even now, Belle still sometimes felt like pinching herself to be reassured of the reality of it all.

The Marchlands stronghold appeared on the horizon, and Belle wondered how long it would be before someone came out to greet them, either with suspicion or relief. At this distance, anyone in the watchtowers would be unlikely to recognise her. She smiled to herself, she really couldn’t wait to see the look on Will’s face when he saw her new hair colour.

They continued to ride on towards the stronghold, and sure enough, a pair of outriders came out to greet them. They stopped short, and Belle could see them looking at each other in confusion and engaging in a heated discussion that she could not yet hear. As she and Rumpel got closer, the two outriders looked at them apologetically.

Belle just gave her most genial smile.

“Sir Alain, Sir Ronald. It’s good to see you again. I trust that nothing too dramatic has happened in my absence?”

“Erm…”

The guards continued to be speechless for another few moments, looking from Belle to Rumpel and back again. Thankfully, they were rescued by the arrival of someone else on the scene, someone who had run all the way from the castle and collapsed on the ground panting once he reached the cluster of horses.

“Belle!” he groaned from the ground. “You’re back! And you broke the curse!”

“Well, Rumpel certainly helped with that.” Belle slipped down off her horse and gave Will a hand up off the ground. Sir Alain and Sir Ronald looked at Rumpel with a new expression of mingled fear and admiration. Rumpel simply waved benignly.

“You’re looking… well,” Will said, looking him up and down.

Rumpel shrugged. “Two curses broken with one stone. Well. Not exactly a stone.”

Belle felt the colour rise in her cheeks and Will rolled his eyes.

“I’m not even going to ask, but considering what I said last time I met you, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised.” He wrapped his arms around Belle in a warm hug that she returned wholeheartedly. “I’m so glad to see that you’re ok. Not that I thought you wouldn’t be, but after so long with everything going wrong, I can’t believe that you managed it.”

“Neither can I, at times,” Belle admitted as he released her. She looked up at the two outriders. “Sir Alain, Sir Ronald, would you be so kind as to let my father know that I have returned?”

They nodded unsurely, still having trouble comprehending the scene that was playing out in front of them and visibly glad that they were able to leave. As they trotted off back towards the castle, Rumpel dismounted his horse and Will went over to him, shaking his hand and congratulating him on the curse break.

They made their way back towards the castle on foot, leading the horses and giving Will time to get his breath back and the outriders time to inform Maurice of this turn of events. Once they were inside, Belle was waylaid by several servants and guards who had missed her during her time away, and it took them quite a while to get through the castle to the door of Maurice’s study.

“I think I had better go alone,” Belle said. “Let’s not overwhelm him too much.”

Will and Rumpel nodded their agreement and stood back to let Belle enter her father’s chambers alone.

“Papa?”

He had been standing at the window, no doubt watching her progression back towards the castle ever since the outriders had informed him of her imminent return, and now he turned towards her, a man in a daze.

“Bluebell? Is it really you? I’ve daydreamed about you coming back so often, you know.”

Belle felt a pang of guilt for the worry that she had caused her father, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret her course of action.

“It’s really me, Papa. I’m sorry that it had to be like this, but I know that if I hadn’t left when I did and in the manner I did, then you would never have allowed me to go and I would never have been able to break the curse.”

Maurice nodded, coming over to her and touching a lock of her white hair.

“It’s gone? Truly gone after all this time?”

Belle nodded. “Yes. And in the end, the cure was as simple as it could be. Right under our noses the entire time, if we’d actually thought about it hard enough.”

“Yes?”

Belle smiled. “True Love’s Kiss.”

Maurice’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “What? How can that be?”

“True Love’s Kiss breaks any curse, Papa. And this curse was so designed that it could only be broken with a kiss.”

“I understand that, but how can you have found a true love in order to give you such a kiss? You’re not even betrothed yet? You’ve never had suitors!”

Belle gave her father a look. “Papa, do you really think that a suitor that was chosen for me without my input would be my true love?”

“It worked for me and your mother.”

“I know that you and mother were very lucky, and I’m not suggesting that you did not love her. But I don’t think that a pure true love coming from an arranged match should be taken for granted. Isn’t falling in love naturally better?”

Maurice was still looking perplexed. Although the Marchlands were not large and nowhere near as powerful as their neighbours, arranged matches for political and social benefit had been the norm among them for as long as anyone could remember. For as long as the curse had been in effect, Belle thought darkly.

After a few minutes silence, he seemed to come back to himself.

“It’s still all very unorthodox,” he huffed. “I’ve never even met the young man in question.” He paused. “It was a man, wasn’t it?”

Belle rolled her eyes. “Does that really matter?”

“Well…”

“Would you rather that I was still cursed?” Belle asked plainly. She was beginning to see why Evangeline had brought wrath down upon the family in the first place.

“No.” Maurice sighed. “No, you’re right. Your life and happiness should come first.”

In an uncharacteristic display of affection, he put his arms around her in a tight embrace. Whilst he had never been outright cold whilst she had been growing up, he had always been distant, not blaming her for her mother’s death but unable to really see her without thinking immediately of the woman to whom she looked so alike.

“I’m very glad that you’re safe, and that you achieved what you set out to do. So, do I get to meet the man who broke your curse? Or woman?”

Belle nodded. “Of course.”

She went to the door and beckoned Rumpelstiltskin to come in. Despite all the bravado that he had shown back when he was still the Dark One, there was a definite nervousness in his manner now.

“Papa, this is Rumpelstiltskin.”

Maurice looked alarmed. “ _The_ Rumpelstiltskin?” He turned to Belle. “I thought he was a myth.”

“No, just a man.” Belle paused. “It’s a long story, but I don’t think that now’s the right time to tell it.” Rumpel had trusted her with his own tale, but there was no need for everyone to know about it just yet.

Maurice looked Rumpel up and down a couple of times, then seemed to think better of whatever comment he was about to make and held out a hand.

“Thank you for what you’ve done for my daughter.”

“She has done just as much for me.”

Whilst it might take a while for her father to warm to the idea, Belle knew that he would come around to it in the end, and that, when it came down to it, he would not prevent them from being together.

For the first time, she could see a very bright and very long future stretching out ahead of her and Rumpel.

X

The wedding took place a few months later, once the worst of the winter was over and the spring flowers were in bloom. Belle looked radiant, with yellow petals braided into her snow white hair, her gown decorated with strands of Rumpel’s golden thread. She positively shone as she glided down the aisle on Rumpel’s arm, and all of the invited guests agreed that they made the most joyful couple that had ever been seen in these parts.

Despite the Marchlands' comparative size and obscurity, the wedding had been much talked about whilst still in its planning stages. The Marchlands curse had been lifted! And by the legendary sorcerer Rumpelstiltskin, no less! People from far and wide had gathered to give the happy couple their best wishes, and to get a glimpse at the man behind the myth. Some were put out on learning that he was just a man, but most were just happy to be caught up in the celebrations and partake of the free refreshments.

It was only once the revellers were beginning to make their way to their beds that Belle finally had a moment to herself, and she found herself wending her way towards her father’s study, leaning back against the desk and looking at the inscription in the stone that had been set there so many centuries before.

The curse was gone; she had ensured that none of her descendants would ever suffer from its effects, but the stone remained in place. Maurice had wanted to remove it, unwilling to see the reminder of all of the pain that it had caused the family throughout time. Belle, however, thought otherwise. Whilst she and Rumpel knew better, and would never cause another similar curse to be brought about, generations down the line might grow complacent and fall back into the habits that had caused the first curse. Belle was determined that all her future children, grandchildren and beyond, would be free to marry whoever they chose, and to find their true love just as she had found Rumpel.

“I wondered if I might find you in here.”

Rumpel peered around the doorframe and gave her a grin. Although most of his impish mannerisms had vanished along with his curse, he had spent so long wearing that persona that some things had bled through, and would never truly leave him. Belle didn’t mind, far from it. She had fallen in love with him whilst he had still been cursed, after all.

He held out a hand to her and she came towards him, leaving the stone and memories of the past behind as they made their way through the castle towards their chambers.

Belle gave a sigh, leaning in close to Rumpel’s side. “I’m just so happy,” she said. “Not just for me, and the fact that my curse is broken and I’ve found true love, but for Evangeline and Elizabeth as well. It feels like we’ve finally got justice for them.”

“Yes, I can understand that feeling.”

They had reached the door to their chambers, and below them, Belle could still hear a few carousers continuing to celebrate the union long after the wedded couple had taken their leave. There was so much happiness in the Marchlands now, and it made her proud to know that she had been instrumental in bringing it.

Tonight, however, was just for her and Rumpel, and no thoughts of the rest of the Marchlands would enter her head. Belle slipped her arms around Rumpel’s neck, kissing him deeply.

“I think I know how I can be even happier,” she whispered.

Rumpel raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth quirking up in a little smirk.

“In that case, my lady, I will endeavour not to disappoint.”

“I should hope not, Bill.”

Rumpelstiltskin rolled his eyes and silenced her with a kiss.

Soon, all thoughts of curses and the hardships that had passed were far from their minds, as true love won out once and for all.

 


End file.
